Arik Air/Virgin Nigeria Airlines

[urban909]

http://www.tribune.com.ng/21122007/news/news8.html

well, although in the article they don't specifically mention houston, both W3 (arik air) and VK (virgin nigeria) have mentioned houston as one of their destinations. interesting to see if this truly happens...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arik_Air

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Nigeria

[cottonmather0]

That's cool, we have a (legal) Nigerian lady who works for us and she complains a lot about the cost and hassle of getting to and from Nigeria from Houston. There are no direct flights and no consulate office in Houston, you have to either go to Atlanta (?) or to New York to get to Nigeria.

There was also an article in the Chron this summer on the same topic with reference to all of the Nigerians living in Houston (apparently we have the largest ex-pat community outside of New York), but the Chron seems to have lost (or taken down) everything in its archives so I can't find it. Oh well.

Continental also has made some comments lately about flights to Lagos, too. Will be very interesting to see, although I'm not sure if it's a place I would ever want to visit!

[Trae]

That's cool, we have a (legal) Nigerian lady who works for us and she complains a lot about the cost and hassle of getting to and from Nigeria from Houston. There are no direct flights and no consulate office in Houston, you have to either go to Atlanta (?) or to New York to get to Nigeria.

There was also an article in the Chron this summer on the same topic with reference to all of the Nigerians living in Houston (apparently we have the largest ex-pat community outside of New York), but the Chron seems to have lost (or taken down) everything in its archives so I can't find it. Oh well.

Continental also has made some comments lately about flights to Lagos, too. Will be very interesting to see, although I'm not sure if it's a place I would ever want to visit!

Those cities don't have direct flights to Nigeria either. You have to still go to Europe. And Houston actually has the largest Nigerian community outside of Nigeria itself and London.

[travelguy_73]

I can prety much guarantee that Continental will not set an aircraft down on a Nigerian runway after the Nigerian government's antics with their route approval. In fact, the experience left a very bad taste in the mouths of most US carriers. Money does heal corporate wounds, though, so nothing is out of the realm of possibility.

[houstonmacbro]

This is really interesting. Are we on the path to be the new 'international" airport?

[VicMan]

I can prety much guarantee that Continental will not set an aircraft down on a Nigerian runway after the Nigerian government's antics with their route approval. In fact, the experience left a very bad taste in the mouths of most US carriers. Money does heal corporate wounds, though, so nothing is out of the realm of possibility.

Remember that Delta began Atlanta to Lagos and will begin JFK to Lagos in mid-2008. CO may try again to go to Nigeria if more deals work out.

[urban909]

This is really interesting. Are we on the path to be the new 'international" airport?

well, i don't know quite what you mean by that, but houston has been a strong international airport for many years. KL (KLM) has been flying here for over 50 years; this is BA's (bristish airways) second most profitable route in the US after JFK; AF's (air france) most profitable US altogether, etc, etc. granted, we have had airlines come and go, but IAH has been one of the fastest growing international airports in the world, in the top 5 to be more specific. so, its awesome that we got EK, QR (2008), SQ (2008), KE (korean) will move from DFW or start its own route (skyteam and all), which i believe that all can find their niche here in houston and succeed/make a profit. i believe we do have room for a couple of more asian carriers; CI would have been more of a success had that a direct, non-stop route instead of going through SEA....