British Airways (BA) appears to be having back its customers in the Nigerian market as it moves to introduce a bigger and better Boeing 747 on its London-Lagos route from September, authorities of the airline say.
This development is coming after one year of foreign exchange repatriation challenge, which forced the company to bring a smaller aircraft into the country to commensurate the passenger traffic. It would be recalled that between January 2016 till April 2017, airline had challenges of repatriating their earnings in Nigeria to their home countries. This led to the exit of Iberia airline and United airline from Nigeria.
However, the market is gradually coming back again. Comparing passenger traffic in May 2016 and 2017, which is when most bookings for summer are confirmed, the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) recorded stability and growth in the volume of passengers. While about 223, 531 passengers travelled for outbound destinations in May 2016, 243,994 went for same purpose in May 2017.
Kola Olayinka, the airline’s Commercial Manager in Nigeria, said that each of the Lagos Boeing 747 fondly referred to as the ‘Super High J Aircraft’ within the BA’s family would have 14 seats in its first class, 86 in business class, 30 in world traveller plus and 145 in world traveller.
“The new aircraft are larger than the Boeing 777s which the airline currently operates and will add an extra 343 seats a week on the busy route between London and Nigeria’s commercial capital-Lagos.
“The newest aircraft with well-refreshed interior, and the state-of-the-art entertainment system, also have a larger Club World cabin with 86 lie-flat beds and choice of the upper deck cabin for our dedicated business class customers,’ Olayinka said.
He said that some of the aircraft had begun flying on popular BA routes to New York, Chicago, Johannesburg, Dubai, Boston, Riyadh, Kuwait, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Washington DC from London.
Olayinka said that flight numbers and schedule would remain the same with BA75 departing Heathrow at 11:30 a.m. and landing in Lagos at 1755p.m.
He said that the return service operates as BA74, would depart Lagos at 22:55p.m., to arrive at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 at 05:25a.m., the following morning.
