Medview Approved To Fly Six International Routes

Nigeria-based Medview Airlines said Tuesday that it has been designated by the Federal Government to fly into six regional and international routes to actualise the principle of reciprocity in the bilateral air services agreement the Nigerian government signed with other countries of the world. The routes according to the managing director if the airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole include: 14 frequencies on the Lagos / Accra route; Lagos / Dakar ; Lagos / Libreville; Lagos/ Abuja / Jeddah; Kano / Jeddah, which are four frequencies .

The other routes are : Lagos / Dubai and Enugu / Singapore.  Bankole disclosed this Tuesday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos while taking delivery of the fourth aircraft acquired by the airline.

He said the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA), had granted the airlines, the international air permit to carry out the international operations. He said Medview Airlines is the first carrier to be awarded the new international permit by the new director general of the authority, Captain Folaleye Akinkuotu.

Bankole assured that before the end of the year, Medview Airlines would begin direct flights into Dubai , even as plans were in place to consolidate on other routes, in which the airline has been designated. He said within a year that Medview Airlines began operations on the domestic scene of the industry it flew over 250,000 passengers.

He said the carrier airlifts a monthly average of about 30,000 passengers monthly. Bankole said: "It has been a pride of this company and for Nigeria today to see a domestic airline within a short space of time growing as you have seen. We are proud to tell you that, we spoke with you in January and we promised you that in another six to eight months we will give you two more aircraft, this one of them acquired by MedView, it is an aircraft that we purchase, we call it lease purchase and we have 737-800 coming in very soon.

“These are the two aircraft to add to this fleet and before the end of the year a bigger aircraft will come in to join up to be doing the international and regional operation which you are aware this company has been designated by the Federal Government on some regional and international routes. The routes are , Accra, Dakar, Libreville , Jeddah, Dubai and Singapore."

Bankole also urged the Federal Government to come to the aid of domestic airlines to get access to sufficient aviation fuel in order to have a smooth flight operations across the country. He pointed out that the lack of aviation fuel to power the aircraft is one of the major problems that most airlines operators in the aviation industry were grappling with.

Alhaji Bankole said that the problem had degenerated to a national issue, thus calling on the government to come to the aid of domestic airlines in the country by giving the major fuel suppliers some window that will make the products easily accessible and available to airlines operators.

He said, "For us it is a national assignment, so you will help me tell President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum. It is a national issue, so we don't want to talk as MedView we want to talk in general with other operators, it affects not only MedView Airlines, it affects other operators because we need the government to come to our aid so that government can give those major fuel suppliers some window to get full accessibility of the product because it is very difficult to find outside."

He stressed that because of the heavy growth of passengers patronising the airline, more aircraft were needed to meet the demands of the passengers as well as make air travel a memorable and seamless experience to the flying public.

"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."

He said the newly acquired aircraft was built to accommodate twelve Business-class passengers and 104 Economy-class passengers. He said that the aircraft was purchased in order to give passengers the best comfort that they deserve with a reduced air fare stressing that the motive of the airline was to ensure that passengers have seamless travel experiences across the country.