Air travellers between Nigeria and the United States of America, now have a choice as another Nigerian carrier, Arik Air, has been given approval to commence direct commercial flights to America thus becoming the third Nigerian carrier to get such approval.
The U.S. Department of Transport (DOT), in a letter to the airline dated April 4, 2008 and signed by the Director, Office of International Aviation, Paul L. Gretch, said the Nigerian flag carrier had satisfied all requirements and thus qualified to fly direct into any part of the United States.
According to the approval letter, Arik Air has been found to be operationally and financially qualified to conduct its proposed operations and is substantially owned and effectively controlled by citizens of Nigeria .
Nigeria is attempting to widen the tourist industry of the country by increasing the places that commercial flights can travel in and out of. The U.S. is obviously a huge market, so this should be good for their economy. However, one of the foreseeable issues with this new approval is that pilots with substandard training could be operating these aircrafts and endangering hundreds of lives. This new change affects our community fairly directly because one of the three cities that Arik Air is allowed to fly into is Atlanta. If anyone is up for a trip to Nigeria, new legislation has made it much more possible.
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