NG Eagle (2N, Lagos) began commercial flight operations on December 10 using an A320-200 wet-leased from Heston Airlines (HN, Vilnius).
According to ADS-B data trackers, LY-WSM (msn 2531) flew the Abuja-Lagos and return milk run having been ferried to Nigeria in mid-November. Other destinations currently listed on the start-up's booking portal include Sokoto, Yola, Port Harcourt Awolowo, Benin City, and Kano. Sistership LY-FJI (msn 2157), which also arrived in West Africa last month, has since, however, been flown to Shannon. The Lithuanian ACMI/charter specialist has since told ch-aviation that LY-WSM is expected to operate in Nigeria until the end of February 2024 while the addition of "a second unit" is also under discussion.
Established in 2019, NG Eagle was formed by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), a government agency dedicated to debt recovery, to succeed Arik Air (W3, Lagos), which is under administration. Arik's viable assets were placed with newco Super Bravo Limited including three B737s - B737-800 5N-BXV (msn 35638) and B737-700s 5N-BXW (msn 33944) and 5N-BXX (msn 34761) .
According to Nigeria's NewsDay newspaper, a Lagos court in March ordered the Boeing (BOE, Washington National) twinjets be returned to Arik Air following a law suit. Given NG Eagle's protracted certification process, Super Bravo then planned to place the trio with another AMCON-administered carrier - Aero Contractors (N2, Lagos). NG Eagle's original certification drive was put on hold pending a change in ownership, which has since taken place via Nigerian aviation services firm Galactic Aviation.
Now, even though it launched using wet-leased capacity, NG Eagle has argued that it is still compliant with Nigerian law given it secured its air operator's certificate (AOC) using the B737s.
“We are free to use leased aircraft because we carried out demonstration flight with Nigerian registered aircraft, which are still in our fleet but currently off spec and due for maintenance," maintenance manager Roland Ahmed told the paper. “The two Airbus A320 we leased are in addition to our existing three Boeing B737NG that we used for demonstration. We are using leased aircraft because we already have [Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs)] Part G approval.”
Nigeria's scheduled domestic passenger market now consists of: Arik Air, Aero Contractors, MaxAir (Nigeria), ValueJet, Air Peace, Ibom Air, Overland Airways, Rano Air, Dana Air, United Nigeria Airlines, Green Africa Airways, and Azman Air (dormant).
