Arik Air, Nigeria’s leading commercial airline, has finished the summer season by registering a growth in uplift of 10.3% for the three month period ending 31 August 2010 compared to the same period last year. Arik carried nearly 60,000 more passengers during this period comparable to 2009, with August (2010) realizing a 11.9% year on year increase in passenger numbers.

During August, and only eight months on from lifting its four millionth passenger, the airline reached another landmark when it carried its five millionth passenger on 6 August on the Johannesburg to Lagos route. Reaching the milestone of five million passengers is particularly impressive given that Arik flew on its first scheduled flight (Lagos to Abuja) on 30 October 2006 and is yet to celebrate its fourth anniversary.

The launch of its first international route was between Lagos-London, commencing operations on 15 December 2008. Since then, Arik has added Lagos-Johannesburg (Jun 09), Abuja-London (Nov 09) and Lagos-New York (Nov 09) to its long haul operations as well as opening regional routes from hubs in Lagos and Abuja to Dakar (Senegal), Accra (Ghana), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Cotonou (Benin), Banjul (The Gambia) and, most recently, Monrovia (Liberia).

Dr Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, Group Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air, commented; “The figures for the period just ended are very encouraging and reflect the steady growth that we have been experiencing since launching the first long-haul route in December 2008. Additional long-haul routes that we have added towards the end of last year have undoubtedly complemented the significant increase in passenger numbers for this quarter and we’re confident that we will build on this demand domestically and internationally. Arik Air underwent a rapid expansion in 2009 and this year the focus has been on consolidating in these new markets – from introducing our truly unique service and offering on new and under utilized routes, the aim has been to maintain those standards that set us apart from our competitors; I feel we have achieved this and the figures speak for themselves.

“Carrying our 5 millionth guest during this period has also been an incredible accomplishment given we are short of four full years into scheduled operations. To think that we have carried over one million passengers since January of this year is quite remarkable and something that everyone at Arik Air is very proud of.”