Trade and diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Benin Republic received a big boost recently as Arik Air commenced direct flight services from Lagos into Cotonou, Benin Republic on Monday.
Businesses, diplomatic, tourism and even academic relationship between the two neighbouring countries have spanned decades, but sadly have been conducted largely by road due to the absence of direct flight services linking the two countries together. Up until three years ago, it used to be a smooth and pleasant journey going into and out of the two countries by road through the Lagos-Badagry expressway up to the Seme boarder. But the state of the road got so terrible that a journey through that route which lasted less than one hour was stretched into several hours.
Trevor Henry, manager sales and distribution for Arik Air said in the last two years there had been a pressure based on public demand to open up direct air services between the two countries.
Henry said besides taking passengers from Lagos to Cotonou, Arik Air also got the permit from Benin Republic to fly out passengers from Cotonou to Douala, Cameroon .
Arik Air yielded to the demand of the market and had a flight W3 557 fly into the Cotonou international airport from the Murtala International Airport Lagos.
Said Henry, “We were the first to develop that route but left it over a year ago. But with more demand we had to go back. So what we do now is that we do a daily service in the morning or afternoon we can take passengers from Nigeria to Benin Republic, and in Cotonou we can also fly out to Douala in Cameroon and do the same return trip Douala-Cotonou-Lagos by evening of the same day.”
Siddharth Bale, an Indian businessman who was on the flight said it was one of the best things that had happened to business relationship between the two countries.
“You can see that the aircraft was almost full with all the seats taken up,” he said. “A lot of people prefer the 15 minutes flight by air from Lagos to Cotonou than the discomfort of going by road. Time is money,” he added.
Olusola Arowolusoye, a Nigerian bilingual (speaking English and French) and who described himself as a Human Resource expert expressed great delight with the fact that he could go in and out of the two countries by air.
“I do a lot of business shuttling Benin Republic and Nigeria as a human resource expert. I am so happy between i had a meeting this afternoon in Cotonou and i could come in, do my work, and catch the returning flight from Cotonou in the evening back to Lagos. I am convinced this will do a lot of good to trade and business relationship between Nigeria and Benin Republic,” he added.
Arik Air said through the new route it also planned to ease air travellers’ movement within the West and Central African sub-regions using the Lagos international airport as a hub.
“We have created a network and now passengers can buy direct air tickets to London, South Africa and New York from any of these countries, either Cameroon, Benin Republic, Togo, and Senegal, and we can fly them to these destinations out of Lagos as a hub,” Henry said.
He added that Arik Air was proud to assist Nigeria economically fulfil its ambition of serving as a hub of travellers within the West African sub-region because passengers could now come in with Arik Air flights from any of its neighbouring countries and then fly out overseas out of Nigeria as is done in Kenya, Ethiopia, Dubai, Qatar, and other European countries.
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