Aero Contractors, Nigeria’s oldest carrier, as part of its repositioning drive, has commenced inaugural flight to Yola, Adamawa state.
The airline’s Boeing 737-500 aircraft touched down at the Yola International Airport at exactly 6:00pm to a ceremonial water salute by the airport fire-fighters on Tuesday.
The aircraft had departed Lagos to Yola enroute Abuja on the flight commanded by the airline’s Chief Pilot, Capt. Imoleayo Adebunle.
The flight departs Lagos 3:20pm daily, arrives Abuja 4:35pm before departing for Yola at 5:00pm and arriving at 6:10pm according to the Lagos-Yola schedule.
The coming of Aero has deepened flight options to passengers desirous of seamless connectivity from Lagos or Abuja to the North Eastern state.
To attract more guests into the new route, the airline has also started with a promo fare of N18,500 for Yola to Abuja and N20,000 for Yola to Lagos which is a two-hour flight.
The interim Station Manager for the airline, AbdulMalik Musa, said the airline has decided to make it a night stop in Yola and early morning departure to enable business people meet their morning schedule in Abuja and Lagos.
It was a deliberate business strategy as Aero is the only airline out of the three other carriers operating to Yola doing night stop in Yola and morning departure.
The station manager assured that the airline would continue to provide on-time and excellent in-flight service on the route.
He said, “We are fully prepared for this service. As you can see the aircraft is on ground on schedule from Lagos down to Abuja. That is how we want to keep it.
“The schedule is morning departure. We commence boarding at 7:00am and by 7:30am we are out of this place.
“We decided to pick this time for the numerous passengers in Yola because some of them are business people and working class people.
“They can be able to be in Abuja at 8:30am to meet the office hours and their business schedule as well as in Lagos at 10:30am and be able to come back if they wish.
“There are four airlines operating into Yola including us. So, the competition is there. We have to come into the market with a new strategy. So, we decided to make it a night stop.
“We started with a promo fare of N18,500 to Abuja and N20,000 to Lagos. I’m sure no airline can beat that. It is an opening for the youths.”
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