Medview Airlines begins operations to Jeddah

MEDVIEW Airlines has concluded plans to begin another international flight service to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with its newly acquired Boeing 737-800 aircraft from December 31, 2015.

The airline revealed this while taking delivery of its operational aircraft from Slovakia and the new route is starting 17 days after the airline commenced direct flight operations from Lagos to London.

The Managing Director of Medview Airlines, Muneer Bankole while unveiling the new aircraft, which now increased the fleet of the airline to five, said that the airline would commence two weekly flights from Lagos-Kano to Jeddah with plans to increase the frequencies to four in the coming months.

He declared that the aircraft, which landed at the international wing of the airport few days ago, was leased from Air Explore in Slovakia and would be used for the Jeddah.

The aircraft with the registration number OM-GEX is configured for 176 passengers; eight business class seats and 176 economy seats.

He disclosed that in the couple of weeks, it would expand its Port Harcourt operations to two from the existing one daily.

Commenting on its Lagos-London flights, Bankole hinted that the flights had been increasing on a daily basis and expressed confidence that it would continue to grow.
He said, “We chose Gatwick instead of Heathrow airport because the airport has a limited challenge. From Heathrow alone, we have three airlines that are operating direct daily flights; British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Arik Air, but we are the only one operating from Gatwick.

“As it is today, all our flights out of Lagos to London are fully booked till the end of January. I don’t know whether to call it acceptance or something else, but one thing I know is that our flights have been increasing daily and I want to thank Nigerians for this.

“Also, our flights to and from Accra route, which we started about 14 months ago have been increasing and regularly full. We are also planning Dubai operations in the first quarter of 2016 and that is how we hope to grow and consolidate on our operations.”

Also speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer, Air Explore, Slovakia, Mr. Martin Stulajter, commended the management of Med-View over the existing relationship between the two organisations.
Stulajter assured that the existing relationship would continue as the airline had proved to be reliable and consistent in its business development plans.

“ There are over 20million people in Lagos and lots of Nigerians all over Europe and they can all fly, This is a great potential and it will enable us and our partners (Medview) grow the industry”, he said.