Six Nigerian Airlines Form Historic Alliance to Improve Service

The six carriers, Azman Air, United Nigeria Airline, Arik, Air Peace, and Max Air inked a deal, named Spring Alliance, and vowed to work together and ensure that they engage in interline collaboration to protect their operations and improve service delivery to passengers. The agreement was signed in Lagos.

The objective of the alliance is to curb flight delays among the six partners, give one another technical support and also ensure that passengers are airlifted by any of the members, no matter, which airline’s ticket the passengers have. For example, if Arik Air flight operating from Port Harcourt to Lagos suffered a bird strike, instead of waiting for the airline to deploy another aircraft, another airline that is a group member, will fly Arik Air passengers to Lagos.

Meanwhile, flight delays and cancellations among airlines in Nigeria continue unabated as scarcity of aviation fuel bites harder and the cost of ticket purchases increase. Airline passengers in Nigeria pay for fares in naira, which has weakened sharply due to devaluations. Fuel suppliers however are paid in U.S. dollars, a scarce currency in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s fuel crisis has been exacerbated by imports of sub-standard petrol. This has angered motorists, who have been spending hours in lines for petrol, while some public transport owners have taken advantage of the situation, by hiking fares.