Abuja: George Uriesi, COO Ibom Air has disclosed that Ibom Air has no ambition in the future to operate flight outside Africa, rather the airline wants to operate within Africa and expand within the African region.
Uriesi who disclosed this on Tuesday during the Airbus Media Event on the sideline of the seventh Africa Aviation Summit holding in Abuja, said the airline wants to build a safe, serviced focused and secured airline and in doing this, it would be unwise to enter into unhealthy competition with big airlines in other countries.
He explained that some big airlines are in the habit of slashing prices just to drive small carriers out of the international market and Ibom Air does not have money to fight big players in their own countries.
He said, as a result, it is better operating on routes where it can grow and at the same time, remain profitable.
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Uriesi said the airline reached the 2.5 million passenger milestone on 12 July 2023, operated 34,802 scheduled flights as at 31 August 2023, has become well established as the domestic airline with best schedule reliability and on-time performance and achieved International Air Transport Association (IATA) Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) Certification in March 2023.
Speaking on the airline’s fleet expansion drive, Uriesi said after careful assessment, it selected the
‘next gen’ Bombardier CRJ 900s (76-90 seater) which has low usage, high reliability, and reduced maintenance costs for the first few years.
He said this aircraft type was much better suited for Nigerian domestic operations, with better ‘fit-for-purpose’ operating economics than the B737 and A319/320 family as well as the MD80/83 all mostly used by the competition.
“The burgeoning strength of the brand based on wide acceptance in the market created a serious capacity
crunch in H1 2021. It became apparent that an increase in capacity to meet demand had become necessary. We approached aircraft manufacturers seeking for larger capacity aircraft, eventually settling on the Airbus A220.
“However, because it would require a long lead time to make orders and schedule deliveries, with the help of Airbus, we secured 2 A220-300s on an initial one-year ‘wet-lease’ from Egyptair, which we began
to operate on 30 June 2021 (bringing our fleet to 7 aircraft). This gave us the opportunity to ‘test’ the aircraft and we were delighted that the A220 was very well received and achieved great success for us in the Nigerian market,” the Ibom Air COO explained.
He added that based on the immense success of the A220 wet lease, in October 2021, the airline signed an order for 10 new A220-300s from Airbus, with deliveries beginning in November 2023.
Uriesi said because of the fact that Ibom Air was just over two years old as an airline, Airbus had to visit the airline in Uyo to see and feel the company.
He said Airbus offered advise on what they needed to do to be able to secure the necessary financing, adding that Ibom Air was invited to several aviation financing and economics conferences and meetings, as Airbus organised formal meetings with most key players and introduced Ibom Air.
“Airbus provided data and statistical/historical information for route and network development and Airbus continuously acted as a valuable ‘sounding board’ for ideas.
He said Ibom Air had to contend with the ‘negative reputation’ some previous
aircraft transactions had earned for Nigerian airlines.
He said Airbus helped them secure speaking slots for Ibom Air at major industry conferences to give the company international profile.
