Arik Air Chairman, Sir J.I.A. Arumemi-Ikhide was on Sunday, February 21, 2010, honoured at the 15th Annual Thisday Award 2010 as one of the 50 most distinguished Nigerians.

The honour was bestowed on Sir Arumemi-Ikhide for his commitment to launch and build Arik Air which has set new standards and changed the face of the aviation industry in Nigeria.

Sir Arumemi-Ikhide received the award in the Business Leaders, Entrepreneurs and Corporate Champions category along with Arik Air executives.
Speaking shortly after receiving the award from former President John Kuffour of Ghana, Sir Arumemi-Ikhide said: “I feel highly honoured by this award from Thisday and I am proud to have made a humble contribution to the development and growth of Nigeria, and particularly in the aviation sector. I want to restate my commitment to the goal of revolutionizing the aviation sector in Nigeria and building an airline that will make Africa proud.”

This is the third successive year, after 2008 and 2009, that ThisDay has honoured Arik Air as the Airline of The Year.

Sir Arumemi-Ikhide founded Arik Air in 2006 and the airline started commercial operations on October 30, 2006 with three brand new Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft thus becoming the first CRJ900 operator on the African continent and the first airline to introduce new commercial aircraft into Nigeria in over 20 years. Since then, Arik Air has grown its fleet to 30 aircraft, including two Airbus A340-500 which makes the airline the first operator of the wide bodied aircraft in Africa.

Arik Air is Nigeria’s leading commercial airline. The airline serves 22 airports across Nigeria as well as Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia), Cotonou (Benin), Dakar (Senegal), Freetown (Sierra Leone), London Heathrow (UK), Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York JFK (USA).

The airline currently operates over 130 flights daily from its hubs in Lagos and Abuja.

It employs a workforce of 2,100.