Aviation Nigeria
Two small carriers, Overland Airways and Med-View Airlines, are taking advantage of the growing demand and capacity shortage by adding services, but currently lack the necessary clout to influence the much larger capacity brought to the market by Arik and Aero.
Overland which still does not even compete on the key Lagos-Abuja route, has continued to retain focus on other domestic destinations.
Overland Airways is expanding its network with the acquisition of a fleet of ATR72s and the wet lease of a 737. The airline currently operates a domestic network of seven destinations, from Lagos and Abuja to Asaba, Ilorin, Minna, Calabar, Bauchi and Ibadan, using a mixed fleet of three ATR 42s three ATR 72s, two Beechcraft 1900-Ds and the 737.
Med-View Airlines, previously a charter operator specialising in Hajj operations, is Nigeria’s latest scheduled domestic carrier. It set itself in competition with Arik and Aero, commencing services between Lagos and Abuja and Lagos and Port Harcourt in Nov-2012 using a Boeing 737-400. On 03-Jan-2013 Med-View added Lagos-Owerri and Lagos-Yola to its network. Med-view plans to start services to Kano and Sokoto in 1Q2013.
A fourth Boeing 737-800 is due to be delivered by 01-Mar-2013.
The airline reportedly carried 13,000 passengers in Nov-2012 and 20,000 in Dec-2012.
Fly540, now owned by LCC Fastjet, is a likely contender to enter the market in due course as part of Fastjet’s objective to establish a pan-African network. Ghana’s Starbow has indicated it plans to launch services from Accra to Lagos, but has not yet stipulated a date.
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