Air Nigeria returns to London Gatwick and Johannesburg

Air Nigeria announced it will start flights from Lagos to London Gatwick per 16 May 2012 and to Johannesburg on 17 May, using two leased A330-200s (24/244 configuration) for its long-haul operations. The airline will initially offer a three weekly service to London and Johannesburg. The London service will become daily from 16 June 2012.

Flight schedule for the Lagos-London route (outbound flights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, inbound filght on the following day):

• VK293 LOS-LGW 23:50-06:50
• VK292 LGW-LOS 10:50-17:50

Flight schedule for the Lagos-Johannesburg flight (outbound flights on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, inbound flight on the following day):

• VK303 LOS-JNB 23:50-06:50
• VK302 JNB-LOS 09:15-14:15

This will be a return to routes the airline abandoned in January 2009, when it was still operating under the Virgin Nigeria name.

The airline further disclosed that Paris and Rome will be added as destinations in June, while routes to Kinshasa, Freetown, Ouagadougou, Point-Noire and Malabo will be opened later this year. Air Nigeria will acquire two B737NGs to enable this expansion. In the past months, the airline has scaled down its domestic operations, cancelling its flights from Lagos to Kano and Benin as well as those from Abuja to Enugu, Owerri and Port Harcourt.