Ibom Air, Air Peace shine as Travellers Award returns

By YANGE IKYAA

Travellers Award 2022 plans to honour Airlines with Young Fleet, Good Customer Services, Inflight Services, On time Performance and Spread of Destinations, even as IbomAir and Air Peace are the top two performers so far.

This year’s Travellers Award will highlight the expectations of travellers in Nigeria, even as the organizers are listening to the complaints and yearnings of travellers by incorporating these desires in selecting the 2022 winners.

This is because delays and cancellations are big issues on the domestic scene, customer services and schedule integrity ranked high on most social media feedback reports.

Many new airlines are expected to join the market but only Green Africa and United Nigeria eventually joined the business out of the 17 under process. The age of aircraft and the return of new Air Planes became an issue when Air Peace brought brand new aircraft into the Nigerian airspace since the decline of Arik.

Out of the 15 Aviation Awards to be unveiled before March 11th at Abuja Jabamah, the youngest Fleet Award and the Destinations Award are the first sets to be released by the organizers.

Travellers Award was instituted in 1996 by the Publishers of Travellers Magazine and Atqnews.com with the theme: “Promoting Excellence in Travels”. The airline that gets the highest number of the awards will emerge as the Nigerian Airline of the year. About 65 to 70 aircraft were on hand in 2021 to carry over 6 million passengers to over 20 active airports in Nigeria. Air Peace and Ibom Air are now the contenders with one award apiece. The other winners of Ontime Performance, Inflight Services, and Customer Service will join the scramble for the Top Award that is airline of the year in 2021.

Air Peace is the airline with the best domestic coverage in Nigeria. They fly to all the 6 geo political zones of Nigeria to almost all the state capitals with airports. Ibom Air is the Airline with the youngest fleet in Nigeria. Ibom Air has a fleet size of 7 aircraft with an average age of 8 years, made up of 5 CRJ and 2 Airbus A220.

The second youngest fleet in Nigeria is Green Africa, one of the 2 new airlines in Nigeria. Green Africa has 3 ATR planes with the average age of 9 years. Arik Air once the biggest airline in West Africa launched its operation with brand new Boeing B737 Next Generation aircraft but recently after it was taken into administration by AMCON, its fleet got depleted to 18 with 11 active aircraft made up of B737, A320 and Q400 with an average age of 13 years.

Air Peace is the only airline that has a brand new plane in Nigeria. They actually have 5 of them, the E2 from Embraer. It has 30 aircraft as at 21st of January 2022 of average of 18 years made of 4 Airbus A320, 10 Boeing B737, 2 Boeing B777 , 8 Embraer regional jet E145 and 5 brand new E195 E2 and 1 Dornier Do-328. But it is about 20 planes that are currently in use. United Nigeria, is one of the new startup airlines in Nigeria. It has 5 aircraft with an average age of 19 years made up one Airbus A320 and 4 Embraer E145 jets.

Azman is with 7 Aircraft of average age of 22 years. Two of the aircraft are parked. The fleet is made up of 1 Airbus A340 and 6 Boeing B737. Max Mir has 5 active aircraft of average age of 22 Years, 3 B737 and 2 Embraer 145. Dana has 7 aircraft made up of 2 Boeing B737 and 4 MD83 with 2 of them parked and one LearJet 45 at an average age of 25 years. Aero Contractors the oldest airline in Nigeria has 8 Aircraft of which 3 are parked. They have an Airbus A320, 6 Boeing B737 and one Dash 8 with an average age of 27 years.

The most consistent airline that has survived 10 Years with no problems in Nigeria is Overland. Overland has 7 Aircraft, 6 ATR of which one is parked and one E145 with an average age of 28 years. The Boeing B737 is still the most dominant aircraft in Nigeria but last year the Airbus A320 can boast of being the bride of Nigerian airlines as Air Peace, Green Africa, Arik and Aero got hold of the equipment. The E145 came close to taking over with Air Peace, Green Africa and Overland getting some copies.

The ATR were the main plane for Overland until the arrival of Green Africa. They have taken over from the Dash 8 which were the most popular Turbo props in Nigeria.
The CRJ was used by Arik before the arrival of IbomAir in 2019. The CRJ carried Ibom Air to its position of prominence in Nigeria. With the new order for more A220 its role might be reduced on the Nigerian Airspace. Meanwhile in Africa the oldest commercial airliner still flying is from Com Air in South Africa.

Comair Boeing 737-400, the ZS-OAO is Africa’s oldest passenger aircraft. The aircraft is 32.8 years old. This is according to AeroTimes an International Aviation Journal.