Ibom Air Commences Flight Operations to Calabar

Ibom Air, a local airline launched by Nigeria’s largest oil-producing state Akwa Ibom in the second quarter of 2019, announced it has commenced flight operations to Cross Rivers, Calabar.

Ibom Air, like other airlines, was grounded to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria.

The local airline had plan to lunch two new routes before the Covid-19 crisis. However, the resumption of domestic flights in the country in the third quarter of the year prompted the management of the airline to launch one of the new routes planned before the crisis.

Calabar, the capital of Cross Rivers State, became the airline’s fourth scheduled destination last month, joining the previous routes — Abuja, Lagos and Uyo.

As stated by George Ureisi, the Chief Operating Officer of Ibom Airline, a new proposed route will connect Lagos, the financial hub of the country, with another region in the South of the country. However, the city was not named but he ruled out Port Harcourt due to the risk of cannibalizing demand in Uyo.

Presumed routes -not specified by Ureisi-might likely include Onitsha, Benin, Enugu, Ibadan and Ilorin.

According to George Ureisi, Ibom Air is planning to grow its fleet of CRJ900 from five to ten in the next few years. Also, plans to induct two new units have been put on hold until the full impact of Covid-19 to the economy is understood.

“We are busy reviewing our business plan now and waiting to see what kind of traction we get,” Uriesi affirmed.

“We intend to grow our fleet of CRJ900s to ten, and we will then change to another, bigger aircraft type. We were going to get to ten in three years, but with Covid-19 only God knows what’s going to happen.” He further added.

He said the airline business plan does not include long-haul flying, however, the addition of bigger aircraft will drive the airline’s growth and expansion across West Africa, Central Africa and maybe up to East Africa.

“We will start with some of the nearby destinations like Accra [in Ghana], like Libreville in Gabon, like Douala in Cameroon,” Uriesi said, referring to outbound services from Lagos and Uyo. “We will do that with the CRJs.”