► NIGERIA: Med-View Airline granted regional, international traffic rights; eyes Dubai by year end.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has reportedly granted Kano-based Med-View Airline (VL) regional and international traffic rights with flights to Dubai to launch before year end, the airline's managing director, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, has announced.

(bizwatchnigeria)

Speaking during the delivery ceremony at Lagos MMA for the airline's fourth aircraft, a B737-500 (MSN 28055 | 5N-BQM), Mr Bankole said Med-View had been allocated six regional and international routes as part of Abuja's plans to ensure "reciprocity in the country's various bilateral air services agreements."

"We are going to expand to Port-Harcourt, Abuja, we also are expanding to Enugu. For our domestic operations, the traffic load has been very heavy, I want to say categorically, we move close to 1,300, 1,400 passengers on daily bases, so on our traffic monthly, we have been between 30,000 and 35,000 passengers monthly. So we have carried over 250,000 passengers,” he said. “So as I am talking to you, we have just been issued our permit, our international permit, we are the first airline to be given that permit by the current Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which is a new designation for an airline of this nature to go outside this country."

Rights awarded include:

• Lagos - Accra (4 weekly frequencies); 
• Lagos - Dakar;
• Lagos - Libreville; 
• Lagos/Abuja - Jeddah; 
• Kano - Jeddah;
• Lagos - Dubai;
• Enugu - Singapore

Speaking on future plans, he noted that a B737-800 would also join the fleet shortly with the airline's first international scheduled flights to Dubai set to begin before year end.

Nigeria's aviation scene is experiencing a surge in demand with fellow Kaduna-based carrier, Chanchangi Airlines (5B), who also received their first B737-500 recently, now set to resume operations with flights to Lagos, Abuja, Yola, Port Harcourt, Owerri and Uyo.