Arik Air, Nigeria’s largest commercial airline, has won the Business Initiative Direction (BID) Platinum Award at the annual World Quality Commitment Convention held in Paris.

The convention is part of the BID programme which recognises the contribution made by companies, organisations and businessmen to quality assurance in their fields. The event was attended by representatives from 74 countries from a range of sectors and industry.

Arik Air was voted by the panel to receive the Platinum Award in recognition for its continued pursuit of excellence and commitment to delivering high standards of service and quality throughout all of its operational and administrative departments.

The award was adjudicated on a set of criteria which companies were benchmarked against; Arik Air was measured on total quality management and deliverance in Customer Satisfaction, Communication Strategies, Benchmarking, Information & Data Analysis, Leadership, Planning and Decision-making, Human Resources, Continuing Education & Training, Processes & Production, Financial Outcome and Business Results.

This is the second time in three years that Arik has been nominated and won an award at the prestigious global event after winning the Gold Award for Total Quality Management in 2008 for the criteria outlined above.

Chris Ndulue, Managing Director of Arik Air collected the award and said;
“Receiving the Platinum Award this year highlights the steps that we have taken in moving the airline forward in the last two years. To be recognised and awarded for our commitment to the standard of service and quality delivery that we provide at Arik Air is quite an honour and one that we are all very proud of. We have always been commited to developing a new standard in air travel for the people of Nigeria, creating a company that provides opportunities for thousands of people and assisting in the regeneration of necessary infrastructure for the domestic aviation sector. This award has duly recognised our work and diligence in delivering on those promises”

Arik Air was founded in 2006 and started commercial operations on October 30, 2006 between Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt with three brand new Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft becoming the first CRJ900 operator on the African continent and the first airline to introduce new commercial aircraft into Nigeria in over 20 years.

Arik Air is Nigeria’s leading commercial airline. It now operates a fleet of 26 state-of-the art regional, medium haul and long haul aircraft including two Airbus A340-500 making the airline the first operator of the wide bodied aircraft in Africa.

The airline currently serves 30 airports across Nigeria as well as Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia), Cotonou (Benin), Dakar (Senegal), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Monrovia (Liberia), London Heathrow (UK), Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York JFK (USA).

The airline operates a combined number of over 130 daily flights from its hubs in Lagos and Abuja.