varig md-11 From France, joined Jul 2000, 1570 posts, RR: 9 Reply 1, posted (1 year 12 hours ago) and read 8137 times:
Thanks for the picture!
I can't wait for Air Nigeria to start servicing CDG, it will be fun to see again African airlines here after the failure of Gabon Airlines, Afriquiyah and the difficulties of Camair and co
The A330 on the pic is registered in Egypt: I guess it's ex-Egyptair?
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Quoting varig md-11 (Reply 1): I can't wait for Air Nigeria to start servicing CDG, it will be fun to see again African airlines here after the failure of Gabon Airlines, Afriquiyah and the difficulties of Camair and co
Kenya Airways, Egyptair, TAAG, Ethiopian, Air Mauritius and Air Madagascar all fly to CDG.
jfk777 From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 7342 posts, RR: 7 Reply 9, posted (1 year 5 hours ago) and read 7046 times:
Quoting LIPZ (Thread starter): In the near future (within July) Air Nigeria will be flying to new long-haul destinations once they receive the first 2 A330-200.
This is a very wide schedule for only 2 A330's. If London is flown daily and others only 2 or 3 times weekly its still lots for 2 birds, how will they do it ?
LIPZ From Austria, joined Jun 2006, 1075 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (1 year 4 hours ago) and read 6824 times:
Quoting jfk777 (Reply 9): This is a very wide schedule for only 2 A330's. If London is flown daily and others only 2 or 3 times weekly its still lots for 2 birds, how will they do it ?
Seems like it will be LOS-FCO-CDG route, I guess something like 3xw.......another one LOS-DXB probably with the same frequencies ......and JNB always 3 times per week.
Just LGW is a daily route.
varig md-11 From France, joined Jul 2000, 1570 posts, RR: 9 Reply 12, posted (12 months 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 5161 times:
Quoting kq747 (Reply 7): Kenya Airways, Egyptair, TAAG, Ethiopian, Air Mauritius and Air Madagascar all fly to CDG.
Yep, except none of KQ ET MS MK are west African.
My post was not clear enough I should have mentionned from "West Africa".
Afriquiyah was not west African but transporting lots of pax from Cotonou, Lomé and LOS to CDG. They use for now SN as the price range is more in line with what 8U used to be
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AsoRock From Bahrain, joined May 2006, 318 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (12 months 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 2893 times:
I don't get all the negativity, but it seems most people are uninformed. Air Nigeria is the new name of Virgin Nigeria after Richard Branson divested and nearly drove the airline to the ground with bankruptcy, mismanagement and a lack of understanding of Nigerian culture.
The new owner is Nicon Group, it restructured the airline, increased the fleet, focused on regional routes and now re-entering the long haul market. In fact, Air Nigeria is most likely placing an order with Boeing for 4 787-8s in London on May 24. They are paying a deposit now and seeking to float the airline on the Nigerian Stock Exchange from 2014.
The airline's CEO is an Ethiopian ex-ET strategy executive. He has every chance of success compared to his predecessors.
varig md-11 From France, joined Jul 2000, 1570 posts, RR: 9 Reply 18, posted (12 months 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 2781 times:
Quoting AF022 (Reply 17): I think this is going to be a massive challenge for them. Venturing into longhaul in entrenched markets is very risky.
Nevertheless, considering the price western airlines sell tickets to/from Africa, there is room for competition....
If they are serious in their developpment and in their daily operations -contrarily to 8U Air Gabon and the likes- there is definitely space for newcomers
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Are these airlines making money, or draining the national reserves? I don't think the Nigerian goverment is going to support longhaul on VK if they bleed.
skipness1E From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2007, 2370 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (12 months 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 2268 times:
Quoting AsoRock (Reply 16): Richard Branson divested and nearly drove the airline to the ground with bankruptcy, mismanagement and a lack of understanding of Nigerian culture.
Can we make this a sticky? I think we all know what parts of Nigerian culture he failed to understand, the parts that would see him in a prison cell if HM Government found out. Anyhoo, what sort of track record does Branson have versus the government of Nigeria? Hmmm?
varig md-11 From France, joined Jul 2000, 1570 posts, RR: 9 Reply 23, posted (12 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 2217 times:
Quoting AF022 (Reply 19): Are these airlines making money, or draining the national reserves?
These airlines would not need state money if their employees didn't venture into being bribed for excess bagage, unregistered cargo and bags which pop up onboard, accepting non-rev pax and force regular pax to leave their seats....
But then again that happens on very "serious" airlines at some stations...follow my eyes AF022
I think West Africa zone is positive for AF in the results, why wouldn't it be for newcomers if they're well organized?
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You got it wrong, Branson failed to explicitly include the right "to use MMA international terminal for domestic flights" in his contract with the Nigerian government. Furthermore, the airline was severely undercapitalized from the start flying older aircraft. If Branson meant well why didn't Virgin Nigeria ever appear on the website of the Virgin Group. Branson also put the wrong people to manage his new airline, people who were not familiar with the local operating environment. I won't name them but they certainly did not do a good job in making money on the London route (most popular international route from Lagos!?)
Nothing Branson did convinced me he ever entered that business endaevour in good faith.
Granted the government is not a saint and probably breached the agreement by forcing VK to relocate domestic flights to the MMA2 domestic terminal, but is that a reason for failure ? Is that the main cause of 100s of million dollars of losses?
The airline was simply mismanaged and Branson had too many grudges.
25 skipness1E: It did. I don't think two A340s from Virgin Atlantic was a bad place to start, do you? Also the non NG B737 whilst not cutting edge is still flown by
26 1stfl94: Starting an airline with brand new aircraft is far more risky there's only a few airlines I can think that have done it successfully.
27 RWA380: Despite what has been said to the contrary, I have to agree with you here. The airline industry in Nigeria will not clean up until the government and
28 bennett123: "Quoting AsoRock (Reply 24): people who were not familiar with the local operating environment". This sounds like saying that he would not pay the req
29 AsoRock: Have you ever been involved in airline management in Nigeria? By environment I mean a poor yet improving infrastructure, bad weather, harmattan seaso
30 bennett123: Sure there is a poor perception about corruption in Nigeria. I geather that you are aware of this. However, you could also have explained what you mea
31 AsoRock: You know exactly what I meant by operating environment. I listed you the operating challenges. Yes corruption is there in Nigeria and I told you it w
32 bennett123: I am not ignoring the clarification in reply 29, (which is perfectly clear) merely pointing out that reply 24 was somewhat vague. People are often vag
33 AsoRock: I'm not sure if more surplus A330s are available from EgyptAir. Yes for a country of Nigerias size it's is embarrassing to boast a long haul fleet of
34 ETinCaribe: Good luck to Air Nigeria. It can be argued that the Nigerian aviation sector has been one of the most underperforming aviation sectors in the world (a
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