Arik Air of Nigeria looks to expand its current flights to the United States, according to a filing with the Department of Transportation. The airline is looking to launch service from Lagos to Houston and New York by mid-2011. Both routes are slated to be operated three times a week with A330-200 or A340-500 aircraft.
Now you might be wondering about this one, since Arik Air A340-500s can already be seen at JFK a few times per week. Airk Air doesn’t have authority yet to fly to the US on their own, so they have leased these A345s to Hi Fly of Portugal (formerly Air Luxor). Arik then operates the aircraft under a wet lease agreement with Arik,.
The one that I find really interesting, however, is the proposed service between Houston and Lagos, because in June Continental announced that it would launch daily service on the route in November 2011 using the 787s it would be receiving that year. But Boeing has had some additional issues with the 787 since then, and Continental/United didn’t provide much in terms of detail during their earnings call a couple of weeks ago.
I’ve asked Continental if there were any updates on the Houston-Lagos route, but I haven’t heard anything. But it would be fun to watch the two airlines compete on this one.
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