Ibom Air pledges daily Lagos-Abuja flights as Okorocha’s Imo Air varnishes in radar
More facts are still emerging from last weekend’s first commercial flight performed by Ibom Air, owned and operated by Akwa Ibom State government on Friday, June 7, 2019.
This is as more than one year after the former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha launched Imo Air in partnership with Dana Airline, nothing much had been hard on the operations of the airline.
Okorocha, who performed the inaugural flight of Imo Air last year, assured then that the airline’s operations will be further energised with additional new aircraft before the end of last year which never materialised till he left office on May 29, 2019.
However, giving update on the unfolding development and commercial operations plan of Ibom Air, Ekerete Udoh, the Chief Press Secretary to Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, told journalists that the airline launched on February 20 with three aircrafts by the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, “will maintain regular daily flights to both Lagos (MMA2) and Abuja respectively”.
“The aircrafts in its fleet (Bombardier CRJ 900) have the distinction of being relatively new, all three, under 10 years old,” Mr Udoh said.
Reacting to the feat achieved by Akwa Ibom State Government, veteran journalist, Mr Joseph Okon, in a recent analysis noted that “It is not common to see a state government establishing an airline business in Nigeria. Even the federal government that has all the exclusive powers to do anything is not able to establish and run an airline”.
While arguing that Nigerians are witnesses to the controversial attempt by the federal government to establish Nigeria Air, Okon recalled that “It seems the jinx has been broken in Akwa Ibom State through Governor Udom Emmanuel’s decision to dare ‘the impossible’. It is true that many Nigerians today are very comfortable with air travels, but the aviation sector appears to be a no go area for government in Nigeria”.
“Ibom Air, a well thought-out programme of Governor Udom Emmanuel-led administration has come to bridge the gap, and provide world class air services to Nigerians to show that aviation business is not rocket science or impossibility.
“A lot of things are involved in an airline business. For government to procure these relatively three new aircrafts that will soon be flying on the Nigerian airspace based on their years of manufacturing shows the commitment and seriousness on the part of Akwa Ibom government,” Okon averred.
