Republic of Brazil President Dilma Rousseff with Federal Republic of Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan on a state visit by the South American leader to Abuja. The two leaders discuss enhancing bilateral relations., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Brazil, Nigeria Strengthen Economic Ties as Arik Begins Direct Flights
16 Sep 2013
• Medview begins airlift of pilgrims to Mecca
By Chinedu Eze
Nigerian ThisDay
If all goes according to plan, Arik Air, Nigeria’s foremost airline, will start direct flights to Sao Paulo city from Lagos to Brazil and South America’s economic hub in November this year, while Brazil’s Gol airline will also reciprocate with flights to Lagos.
The federal government and the Brazilian government designated the two airlines to boost economic and social ties between the two countries, which have so many things in common, including religious and social affinities.
Over the years, since the Brazilian airline, Varig, stopped operation to Lagos about 20 years ago, the route has remained under served and it became a tortuous journey travelling from Brazil to Nigeria through flight connections from Europe or South Africa, a cumbersome experience for any traveller, but by designating the two airlines to start operations, the governments of both countries have facilitated strong economic relationship as Brazilian investors are yearning to open businesses in Nigeria.
Some Nigerians in Brazil, who spoke to THISDAY, said they were looking forward to Arik Air’s flights from the country, disclosing that for many years, Nigerians who had married and had many children in Brazil had not travelled home due to the inconveniences of connecting flights from other countries, adding that with direct flight, many Nigerians and Brazilians would now be travelling to Nigeria.
“Nigerians and Brazilians are looking forward and waiting for the direct flight Arik Air wants to do. We are not interested in the other airline because it is a low cost airline without enough leg room for passengers in their aircraft. Nigerian government must do everything possible to make sure Arik comes to Brazil,” said Ifeanyi Njoku, who has been living in Brazil since the past 20 years.
The Deputy Managing Director and Head of Flight Operations, Arik Air, Ado Sanusi, said Arik was ready to begin operations but noted that while Nigeria had given Gol airline everything necessary for it to start operation to Lagos, Brazilian government was yet to give Arik Air landing slot at Sao Paulo airport, noting that in diplomacy between two countries, reciprocity was the game.
“Naturally, what they do is that they don’t give the other country everything until we also have everything. But indications show that Gol airline has gotten everything from Nigeria and we have not yet got what they have. They have the landing rights, and they said that as far as regulation is concerned they have got all the rights to fly into Nigeria. We have filed in our papers about four months ago to the authorities of Brazil and we are still waiting to hear from them,” Sanusi said.
The Nigerian Ambassador to Brazil, Vincent Oroedion, told THISDAY in Rio de Janeiro, that the designation of Arik Air to Brazil would boost the travel of Brazilians to Nigeria, including investors and those on spiritual pilgrimage, adding that next year the World Cup would be played in Brazil and in 2016, the country would host the Olympic Games.
“So what we are saying is that the designation of Arik Air to Brazil will boost the travel of Brazilians to Nigeria, the Afro Brazilians and others undertake spiritual journey to Nigeria for pilgrimage, specifically to the Osun Osogbo festival. This is held around August, September every year. Many Brazilians, particularly Afro Brazilians have the belief in deities that are worshipped in Nigeria, including Orisha, Iyemoja and Ogun. All these deities are also their deities. This is because although they came here many centuries ago, many of them are still linked spiritually to these deities. Every year, we receive applications for visas for them to go to Nigeria to worship at Osun Osogbo and other deities,” he said.
Oroedion also said Brazilian businessmen were living Nigeria as a burgeoning market with over 160 million people and growing economy, so they want to come and invest in the country; Arik will offer them the direct flight to Nigeria as they craved to bring new businesses to West Africa.
In another development, Medview Airlines, one of the carriers designated to fly Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, at the weekend, started with the airlift of 517 passengers from the Lagos zone through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja.
These 517 pilgrims who came from Osun and Ogun States, were the first batch of the over 5,500 to be air lifted by the airline from three zones namely Lagos, Ilorin and Port Harcourt as allocated to the airline by the concerned authorities.
The airline said it had deployed two Boeing 747 and Boeing 767 aircraft to airports in Lagos and Ilorin that would simultaneously fly pilgrims into Medina, in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at a pre-departure briefing at the hajj camp axis of the MMIA, the Managing Director of Medview Airlines, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, said the airline would complete the inbound air lifting of pilgrims at the designated zones this week.
He promised that logistics had been mobilised to ensure the seamless movement of the pilgrims.
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