*Nigeria’s Arik Airline Wins Leadership Award
By Lateef Lawal

Arik Air, Nigeria’s largest commercial airline, has added yet another feather to its cap by emerging the Company of The Year at the Leadership Awards for Excellence 2009 held at the Conference Centre of Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja on Friday, April 30, 2010.

The honour was bestowed on Arik Air by the Board of Editors of Leadership Newspapers for the airline’s commitment to excellence in the aviation industry and for distinguishing itself from others through ongoing product and service improvements.

The award was presented to Arik Air Chairman, Sir J.I.A. Arumemi-Ikhide by elder statesman and Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to South Africa, Alhaji Shehu Malami.

Speaking shortly after receiving the award, Sir Arumemi-Ikhide thanked the management of Leadership Newspapers for the honour and restated the airline’s commitment to the goal of revolutionizing the aviation sector in Nigeria and building an airline that will make Africa proud.

Sir Arumemi-Ikhide said: “Our commitment is to provide the people of Nigeria, and West Africa, with a means of traveling by air in the most safe, comfortable and reliable manner humanly achievable. That was why right from the outset, our business strategy was always modeled on the purchase of brand new aircraft, which would not only minimize maintenance cost but also ensure international safety standards.”

This is the second award Arik Air received this year. Earlier in February, Sir Arumemi-Ikhide and Arik Air were honoured at the 15th Annual Thisday Award 2010. Arik Air has also in 2008 and 2009 won the Thisday Airline of The year Award.


Sir Arumemi-Ikhide founded Arik Air in 2006 and the airline started commercial operations on October 30, 2006 with three brand new Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft, thus becoming the first CRJ900 operator on the African continent and the first airline to introduce new commercial aircraft into Nigeria in over 20 years. Since then, Arik Air has grown its fleet to 25 aircraft, including two Airbus A340-500 which makes the airline the first operator of the wide bodied aircraft in Africa.

Arik Air is Nigeria’s leading commercial airline. It now operates a fleet of 26 state-of-the art regional, medium haul and long haul aircraft. The airline currently serves 21 airports across Nigeria as well as Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia), Cotonou (Benin), Dakar (Senegal), Freetown (Sierra Leone), London Heathrow (UK), Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York JFK (USA).

The airline currently operates over 130 flights daily from its hubs in Lagos and Abuja