Nigeria's largest airline Arik Air plans to nearly double its fleet to 52 planes within 10 years and has already ordered some of them from Boeing, a source at the company said on Monday.

Most of the carrier's existing fleet are Boeing planes and the source, who did not wish to be identified, said the airline would buy most of the new planes from the U.S. planemaker. The source did not say how many had already been ordered or the value of the purchases.

Privately owned Arik Air needs more planes as it aims to add international routes and increase services, including daily flights to New York, to offset a slowdown at home and bring in more hard currency.

It is also seeking new investors to help it grow and has said it wants to raise up to $1 billion through a private share placement next year and a possible initial public offering (IPO).

Founded a decade ago and now west Africa's biggest carrier by passenger numbers, Arik Air has appointed advisers for the share placement and potential IPO in Lagos, with a secondary listing in London.

"We hope to maintain our market leadership and our growth strategy involving substantially increasing our fleet to 52 aircrafts by 2025," Managing Director Chris Ndulue said on Monday at a briefing in Lagos to mark the carrier's 10 years of operations.

"We plan to ... put our footprint in Europe, Asia and Latin America and the Middle East, and this requires additional aircraft," he said.

Arik Air's home market has been hit by falling demand as a currency crisis in Africa's top economy deepens, due in part to the oil price slump. United and Iberia both stopped services to Nigeria this year and Emirates and Kenya Airways have announced plans to suspend flights to Nigeria's capital Abuja by next month.

Ndulue said Arik Air would also look at various funding options from international banks despite dollar shortages and the economic recession at home, which had affected businesses.

The carrier currently has a fleet of 28 aircraft, mostly Boeings but also three Airbus planes and nine Bombardier aircraft.

New routes and services would help the airline generate foreign currency.

Source:
http://www.ajayiwrites.com/2016/11/arik-air-to-buy-boeing-planes-to-double.html

With their poor customer service...useless airline

Good news, I hope they improve on their customer services..


See more here.

http://www.ajayiwrites.com/2016/11/arik-air-to-buy-boeing-planes-to-double.html

Good

While some are closing down & moving out, One is busy Enlarging and Expanding....

FG is selling

The most useless airline

More money

Who dem epp?

This news should tell you how hypocritical Nigerians are.

Few months ago, Arik Air suspended flight operations and many hypocrites attributed the suspension to Economic recession and even blamed buhari's economic policies and that of CBN. Whereas, those that are in the know stated unequivocally that the suspension was due to domestic issues, pertaining to staff welfare and refusal of the pilots to fly over salary dispute.

Few days later, flight operations resumed and everything was back in place.

Few months later, same Airline wants to expand. Ask yourself, what is truly recession that made them suspend flight operations? If it was, is the recession over?

So many questions

They are back...(*Boards F.G. Onyewe*)

Arilk has poor customer service care!

beycity:
While some are closing down & moving out, One is busy Enlarging and Expanding....

That's life.

Arik is not a domestic airline but an international airline

BETTER!!!

Let those who cannot support the growth of the economy pack and leave

Let those who see great potentials buy more fleets

CONGRATULATION to them!

ARIK Air is good but they usually misbehave sometimes
More like 'I have arrived' has entered into them
They should better watch it cos AIR PEACE is giving them a good run for their money in some local routes

They are alright. Make them shaa employ me.

expanding during recession , i love this

The ones den get dem never fit manage

They wanna buy the fleet Emirates just retired? LoL

Since how many months, this is the first good news am reading about the aviation sector

They should work more on reducing the frequency of flight cancellation on local routes.
Especially Warri route.

davodyguy:
This news should tell you how hypocritical Nigerians are.

Few months ago, Arik Air suspended flight operations and many hypocrites attributed the suspension to Economic recession and even blamed buhari's economic policies and that of CBN. Whereas, those that are in the know stated unequivocally that the suspension was due to domestic issues, pertaining to staff welfare and refusal of the pilots to fly over salary dispute.

Few days later, flight operations resumed and everything was back in place.

Few months later, same Airline wants to expand. Ask yourself, what is truly recession that made them suspend flight operations? If it was, is the recession over?

So many questions

They placed the order for those planes more than 5 years ago ..

Dey should investigate Arik air oo. I believe arms slush funds from Burutai and Kyari are involved

PaulIdu:


They placed the order for those planes more than 5 years ago ..

If their condition is that bad, nothing stops them from canceling the order. Onugo?

What about the 787, I thought they ordered for it?

737 will be a used plane.

Delay and cancellation is their trademark. Arik disappointment need Divine intervention. Until u touch down, Arik can still cancel ur flight.

smackimorn:
What about the 787, I thought they ordered for it?

737 will be a used plane.

The B787-9s are still being ordered by Arik.

Keneking:
With their poor customer service...useless airline

At a time but the only stress free option to NY. Customer service is a No No for them

Surely this is the result of more patronage by our fellow citizens.
Buy Nigerian to grow the Naira too make sense die.
So many jobs to be created directly and indirectly.