26 May 08

VIRGIN NIGERIA IMPLEMENTS INTERLINE E-TICKET CAPABILITY WITH AMERICAN CARRIERS

Lagos Nigeria, 26th May 2008: Virgin Nigeria has successfully implemented interline e-ticketing capability with Northwest Airlines, US Airways, Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways.

These airlines have now joined the growing list of Virgin Nigeria’s interline electronic ticketing partners that include other airlines like Virgin Atlantic, Emirates Airline, South African Airways and Kenya Airways.

“Our top priority is to form alliances with more interline partners to improve passenger convenience when traveling on a multi-carrier itinerary, thereby offering them the opportunity to travel around the globe with our partners”, said Mrs. Bali. She also noted that Virgin Nigeria will be adding Cathay Pacific and Delta by the end of the month.

With the implementation of the interline e-ticket capability, Virgin Nigeria can now issue Northwest Airways, U.S. Airways as well as Singapore and Qatar Airways sector on Virgin Nigeria making it possible for their customers to fly and check baggage in using one single paperless e-ticket.

Travel agents are now able to issue North West Airlines, US Airways, Singapore and Qatar Airways on Virgin Nigeria sectors using Amadeus, Galileo, Worldspan and Sabre.
 
Since its inception, Virgin Nigeria has shown its commitment towards passenger’s convenience by constantly introducing innovative offers as well as challenging the market with competitive fares and this further addition to their stable is no exception.

About Virgin Nigeria

Virgin Nigeria is Nigeria's private sector flag carrier, 51% owned by Nigerian institutional investors and 49% owned by Virgin Atlantic. The airline was formed in September 2004 when the Federal Government of Nigeria announced the selection of Virgin Atlantic Airways as the strategic investor and technical partner in this exciting project.

With the mission of being a World Class Airline from the heart of Africa, Virgin Nigeria, has steadily developed a global network that serves domestic, regional and international routes from its operational hub at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.

With a focus on improving the customer’s experience, Virgin Nigeria is constantly developing innovative products for the convenience of its customers. Some of these innovations include the online booking and payment system. The online and booking payment system allows the customer to book from anywhere in world, as well as make payments with an interswitch debit card for people in Nigeria and most international credit and debit cards for persons in London.

Virgin Nigeria’s customers traveling on the domestic service can also make use of the new ‘Carry On, Carry Off’ product called “COCO”. This product allows passengers traveling on the domestic service carrying cabin hand luggage which is over 6kg to hand these over to the attendants at the foot of the aircraft. These bags are specially tagged and collected by the passengers on arrival at the tarmac.

Virgin Nigeria recently announced an order for 24 Embraer aircraft. The order consists of E170s and E190s jets. Delivery of the first aircraft is scheduled for September 2008.

Virgin Nigeria is listed on the IOSA Directory following its successful completion of the intensive IATA Operational Safety Audit which now places it at par with the best airlines in the world having shown its commitment and demonstration to airline safety standards

Virgin Nigeria is the first Nigerian airline and first West African carrier to be listed on the IOSA Directory.

For more information, visit www.virginnigeria.com