31 July 08

VIRGIN NIGERIA BEGINS FLIGHT SERVICES TO ABIDJAN

Lagos Nigeria, 31st July 2008: Virgin Nigeria announces that it will on Monday, August 4, 2008 start flight operations to its sixth regional destination by connecting Abidjan, Cote d’ivoire on its route network.

The introduction of flight services to the Francophone city of Abidjan is aimed at fostering the economic and socio-cultural ties in Africa, especially bilateral relationships between Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.

“Virgin Nigeria is building mutual relationships between Nigeria and the neighboring countries through our positive route expansion aimed at developing strong economic ties as well as our commitment towards opening up communication channels between African nations”, Conrad emphasized.

Virgin Nigeria in line with its key objective of creating a hub at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos is fast developing a wide route network cut across international, regional and domestic destinations.

The launch of flight services to Abidjan comes on the heels of the commencement of flight operations to Libreville in June. Other regional routes on the network includes: Accra, Ghana; Cotonou, Republic of Benin; Dakar, Senegal and Douala, Cameroun.
 
Virgin Nigeria will operate twice weekly flights to Abidjan with a brief stop over in Cotonou using a Boeing 737-300 series aircraft. The outbound flight to Abidjan will depart Lagos by 18.00 hours arriving two hours after every Monday and Friday while the inbound will depart Abidjan by 9.30 hours every Tuesday and Saturday.



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