By Kenneth Ehigiator
Arik Air has joined the big league of airlines with the resources to establish an Operation’s Control Centre, OCC, second only to Dubai-based Emirates Airlines.

With the multi-million Dollar facility, the airline could, from its head office at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, track its aircraft in the airspace anywhere in the world.

Arik’s new Managing Director, Mr. Chris Ndulue, said the investments in the control centre form part of the over N900 billion the airline had so far put in its operations since it came into existence four years ago.

According to him, other expenditures came in the form of aircraft acquisition, which gulped $6.1 billion; $2 million on training of cadet pilots at Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria; N1 billion on staff training, including pilots’ simulation training and $4 million on explosive and narcotics’ detection equipment.

He said equipment at the control centre would assist the airline reel out realtime, accurate weather forecasts, thereby de-emphasising its reliance from Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET.

Ndulue said the airline currently has a fleet of 26 short, medium and long-range aircraft, serving all the domestic routes in Nigeria, six regional routes and three international routes, including London, Johannesburg and New York.

He said the airline had not done badly at all in its four years of existence, adding that it currently has 40 percent stake in the nation’s aviation sector.

Ndulue, however, lamented that in as much as the airline had plans to expand its operations, infrastructure limitations in Lagos and Abuja, its two main hubs, might prevent that from happening.

According to him, this is one major challenge Arik Air is facing in its efforts to spread its tentacles further and create more job opportunities for Nigerians.

“We have come to a point where it is difficult for us to expand further in Nigeria because of infrastructural problems.  Now, we are looking at Western and Central Africa for expansion,” he lamented.