Ibom Air, Akwa Ibom State owned airline is working out modality to expand its travel route to seven African countries.
Group Manager, Marketing and Communications, Ibom Air, Mrs Aniekan Essienette who disclosed this in Uyo on Thursday,named the routes to include Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Liberia, Garbon, and Gambia.
She explained that the regional flights will commence operation within the year.
She said that although the airline has already mapped out plans for the regional routes, it would however have to first of all expand its capacity to meet local demand
She added:”We are focused on one thing, to grow this airline and put Akwa Ibom on the pedestal. We are going to expand regionally. We tell everyone that cares to listen that Ibom Air is a world class of African regional airline, meaning that, as much as we want to go international, we want to first of all conquer the Africa territory.
“However, when we are stable, nothing stops us from interlining with international airlines. Every airline that is worth its salt out there is asking to interline with Ibom Airline, meaning that they would bring traffic to us. So, theoretically, you can buy an Ibom Air ticket with Delta Airline and it would take you all the way to the US and back. It is just like Ibom Air operated by Delta.
“But for us, we want to conquer the African territory and this year alone, we want to go to seven African countries: Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Liberia, Garbon, and Gambia.Right now, we are in the process of tidying up all the international agreements, and once that is done, we would start going to our region,” she stated.
Essienette,who mentioned that Ibom Air has seven planes in its fleet, five CRJ900 and two airbus, assured that the 10 additional Airbus A220-300 acquired by the Akwa Ibom State government will be fully delivered to the state before the end of 2025.