Arik, Flying Doctors, Dana, MMA2, others win awards

The air travel industry’s watchdog, Nigeria Aviation Awards (NIGAV), has bestowed 2017 awards on major stakeholders in recognition of their contributions to the development of the sector.Among the awardees are Arik Air, Dana Air, Flying Doctors, Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal II (MMA2), managed by Bi-courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL).

Arik Air won award for the Best Air Crew of The Year 2017 Domestic route, in recognition of the airline’s strict adherence to international standards for both cockpit crew and cabin crew.

Dana Air bagged Airline of the Year 2017, while its crew won ‘King and Queen of the Air’ contest. The airline’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jacky Hathiramani, won the CEO of the Year, while his Communications Manager, Kingsley Ezenwa, was awarded Aviation Corporate Promotions Personality of the year 2017.

The king and queen of the air contest is a newly- introduced initiative by the organizers of the NIGAV awards, where the various domestic airlines’ crew get to answer questions on how they handle safety issues, ensure comfort of passengers and how to be a good crew member.

Similarly, MMA2 clinched the Most Functional Terminal of the Year 2017 Award. MMA2 won the same award in 2016.Aviation Most Remarkable Medical Personality Award went to Flying Doctors Nigeria Founder, Dr Ola Brown. The 2017 award is recognition of Flying Doctors Nigeria’s role in saving lives during critical and emergency situations in sub-Sahara Africa.

Receiving the award in Lagos, Brown stated that she is grateful for the recognition, adding that the award will propel her to use Flying Doctors Nigeria as a platform to rescuing more lives during critical times.

“I am highly elated by this award,” Brown said. “As physicians, we at Flying Doctors Nigeria are using a combination of medicine and aviation to get patients who live in West African sub-region to the right medical facilities at the right timeframe. This award further shows that our activities are not unnoticed by aviation watchers. It is a clarion call for at Flying Doctors Nigeria is to more,” she said.

Brown noted that there is a need to render prompt medical services to people in need, to save the lives of over 1 billion people who lose their lives globally due to lack of timely medical interventions.Flying Doctors Nigeria is West Africa’s first and leading indigenous air ambulance service organisation, which transport patients across the region in medically equipped aircrafts for quick medical care.