Arik Air is to begin scheduled flights from its hub in Lagos to the Angolan capital, Luanda, becoming the first and only Nigerian carrier to operate scheduled flights between the two cities. The first flight is to launch on 13th December (2011) and will operate twice weekly on a Tuesday and Saturday.

The outbound flight will depart Lagos Murtala Muhammed International every Tuesday at 07:00am (local time), arrive in Luanda at 10:10am (local time) with the inbound flight leaving Luanda at 11:50am and arriving back to Lagos at 2:55pm.

Every Saturday, the outbound flight departs Lagos at 02:00am and arrives in Luanda at 05:05am. The inbound flight leaves Luanda at 07:00am and arrives in Lagos at 10:05am. Passengers on Arik’s international routes from London (UK), Dakar (Senegal), Accra (Ghana) and Cotonou (Benin) can connect onwards to Luanda with convenient connections in both directions.

The Lagos - Luanda route will be served with a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft. The 737-800 is a two class compartment and the configuration is 16 Business Class seats and 132 Economy Class. Business Class passengers can enjoy a 44” seat pitch, cradle style seat with 8.6” individual screens. Economy Class passengers will equally enjoy plenty of room on the 3h 10min flight with a seat pitch of 34”.

Dr Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, Group CEO/ President Arik Air, said of the new route; “We are pleased to announce the launch of operations to a new destination, our second sub-Saharan and ninth African point. Luanda is a strategically important capital for the oil & gas and extraction industry and this new route offers increased availability and capacity to the capital as well as introducing the first route between Lagos and Luanda.

“We are sure the partnership with TAAG is going to be a great success and of mutual benefit to both airlines. We can offer TAAG access to an extensive West African and Nigerian network and, similarly, it can offer our passengers the ability to utilize its domestic network and regional network incorporating 23 destinations in southern, eastern and West Africa.”