Arik Air has denied recent media alleging that the airline is in financial trouble and may be going bankrupt any time soon.
Communications Officer, Chigozie Okereke , in a statement said “This false and malicious publication is the handiwork of fly-by-night social media sites trying to ride on the popularity and huge followership of Arik Air, to attract attention or relevance to their sites.
“These harbingers of bad news in their senseless sensationalism and quack journalism would stop at nothing including pulling down national institutions, and icons, in order to achieve their narrow pecuniary interests and those of their desperate sponsors. Arik Air is not deterred by this smear campaign.
“The airline has been steadily operating over one hundred flights on a daily basis which are being increased to one hundred and ten from the on-set of the winter season.
“We have already launched expansion into cities such as Abidjan, Monrovia, Cotonou and Douala which are being further increased to weekly frequencies from this week onwards and therefore find it ridiculous for anyone to suggest that the airline is going bankrupt. Our long haul international flights to London and Johannesburg continue to be operated on a daily basis without any issues along with New York JFK which is flown three times per week.
“Reports of mass resignations of pilots and cabin crew are also totally inaccurate. We have gathered that certain elements of society who are envious of what we have accomplished since our commencement of operations, want to discredit us to strengthen our competitors.
“For the records, we have recently concluded a new deal with Lufthansa Technik who will be maintaining our fleet of 28 airplanes up until 2019. In addition, we are taking delivery of 2 brand new Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft this winter season to further expand our domestic services and launch new services within Africa to cities such as Libreville.
“We are Nigeria’s and West Africa’s largest carrier in terms of aircraft fleet, revenue generation ,passenger numbers, as well as offering the highest number of weekly flights out of Lagos, Abuja, and Accra airports. Thus we are also contributing to the economic growth of Nigeria, and our neighboring countries like Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Cameroon, Benin, and other West African Countries.
“Arik Air is the only airline facilitating direct links between Ghana and Senegal by operating three weekly nonstop services between Dakar and Accra using a Boeing 737NG alongside three weekly flights to Monrovia from Accra.
“We would like to once again state that the airline is not under any abnormal financial or operational difficulties and wish to assure passengers of the high level of safety and customer service that we have been providing since inception in 2006.
Arik Air (www.arikair.com) is Nigeria and West Africa’s largest airline and operates mainly from two hubs at Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja.
It operates a fleet of 28 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, Mr. Okereke, said.
