Nigeria’s leading domestic carrier, Arik Air, will on Monday, May 19, 2008, take delivery of two newly manufactured Boeing 737-700 New Generation aircraft in Seattle, USA.
The event, scheduled to hold at the Boeing Corporation headquarters in Seattle, WA, USA, will attract aviation bigwigs from Nigeria.
The Chairman of Arik Air, Sir Joseph Arumemi-Johnson will be leading a team of Arik Air management to the delivery ceremony which will be attended by the Minister of State for Air Transportation, Mr. Felix Hyat and top aviation officials as well as journalists.
This is the second time in less than two years that Arik Air will be going to the Boeing Corporation in Seattle to take delivery of brand new aircraft. It will be recalled that Sir Arumemi-Johnson had on April 26, 2007 led a similar delegation to Seattle for the delivery of the airline’s first set of two brand new Boeing 737-700NG aircraft.
Arik Air currently has four brand new Boeing 737-700NG aircraft in its fleet. Two of them were delivered in July 2007 and the other two in December 2007.
Arik Air had last year in Seattle, signed an agreement with Boeing for the purchase of wide body aircraft made up of two Boeing 777-200LR; three Boeing 777-300LR; seven Boeing 787-900; and 15 Boeing 737-800/900.
It is expected that Arik Air will take delivery of more brand new aircraft from Boeing before the end of the year.
The delivery of the two new B737-700NG is expected to swell the number of aircraft in Arik Air’s fleet to 19. The airline currently has four Boeing 737-700NG; two Boeing 737-300; four Bombardier CRJ900; two Hawker 850XP. Others are three Bombardier Q300 and two Fokker F50 which are on wet lease from Denim Air.
Arik is currently the biggest airline in Nigeria with 78 daily flights and flying into 17 airports across Nigeria.
Arik Air flies into Abuja, Calabar, Enugu, Benin, Kano, Port Harcourt, Warri, Jos, Yola, Maiduguri, Sokoto, Owerri and Akure airports.