Yes Arik's aircraft are new('ish), with line maintenance being done on-site in Lagos by Lufthansa Technic. So, I’m pleased to report, no problems there (
aside from the fact that some of them have nearly as many sectors as hours... but they should be fine for a few years yet)
However, the downsides of Arik, Lagos & flying in Nigeria include (
in no particular order):
Operationally the airspace is treacherous, little or no radar, and loads of aircraft in the air (
often all trying to talk at once)... for which I quite admire the job the controllers do with the crap facilities they've got to work with. (
thank God for TCAS.... but if only they’d fitted the look-up / look-down version... i.e. 'Tactical’ TCAS ).
En-route & approach ATC is 'procedural' and based entirely upon position reports (
even at Lagos Intl. ) and the sector controllers do not coordinate handovers, so you have to coordinate that yourself (
e.g on a 30 minute flight from Lagos to Benin City, you will talk to Lagos Ctr, Port Harcourt Ctr & Enugu Tower... sometimes all at once... P1 doing one radio, P2 doing the other radio... and often with the 3rd radio also in use too! )... this in an already crowded sky.
Line Training anybody here is difficult, as you're constantly on the radio... and generally just keeping one another 'in the loop' is very difficult.
Situational Awareness is a MUST!
Needless to say, many airports have facilities which, at best, are only part functional... and at worse are not functional at all (
not that this is meant to cause you any operational limitations).
Bird strikes are a regular occurence, and the birds tend to be both numerous and big (
and I can attest that they even fly at night, 'coz I hit one, at night, in the cloud, at 3000 ft AGL)!
Many / most of the en-route & approach aids don't work. You can set up for a VOR/DME APP only to find that the damned thing is turned off... following which you’re then somewhat 'expected' to do a RNAV / 'IN' approach.
Nb. Some of Arik's aircraft have the ability to do 'IN' approaches... albeit that Nigerian airspace is not mapped in accordance with WGS84, and / or that the Nigerian CAA don't allow it, and / or that Arik Air's pilots have not been through any kind of formal training course about how to use it and (
more to the point) it's limitations and what to do when it all goes wrong (
i.e. as you would expect if one was training for Cat III approaches)... but use it they do, e.g. ever wonder how they always get into PHC on foggy mornings when other airlines do not (
albeit that the other airlines break the rules too, with or without 'IN')?!
Approach aids, PAPIS, and runway lights can turn off when you're using them.. usually at the most inconvenient moment (
e.g. short finals).. and ATC never seem to know (
or care).
PAPIS can shine in all sorts of colour combinations, except red & white!... and they only rarely indicate that one is on the G/S, even when one is.
Weight & balance is a joke. It’s a given that you're often a lot heavier than is ever suggested by the load sheet.
On the flip-side, sometimes the load sheet will say 100 pax and then the cabin tell you there are 90 on-board (
you never really know how many people are onboard and / or how many you're meant to have?!).
Going with pax missing seems SOP (
read that as, "they'll always make the numbers onboard fit with the number checked-in, even if it doesn't")
You'll ask for 8 tonnes of fuel and they'll load 9 (
usually when you've just done a 'sharp pencil' job on the T/O performance on an already limiting runway).
Ramp staff will expect you to leave the APU running (
so they can do fuelling) in spite of the fire risk and that they have no idea how to use the APU fire handle in the wheelwell bay.
Refuelling with pax boarding / onboard / deplaning is not carried out in accordance with the Nigerian CAR's, not that anybody seems to knows the rules on this in any case.
The PLOG will suggest you can expect 70 pax... and 150 will turn up, usually after you've loaded round trip fuel (
'coz the company haven't, or won't, pay the fuel bill at some intermediate airport).
People don't know (
or seem to care) how to properly calculate take-off performance and / or the implications on stopping performance & climb segment requirements.
There is no understanding of bleeds-off performance (
and no Airfield Analysis data for it either).
Landing in excess of the aircraft's MLW is almost considered SOP... and rarely exhibits any more than a slight shrug of the shoulders.
There is no roster... it's typically all done on a day-to-day basis. Days Off get moved with impunity and are not given back.
Ops & crewing are nice folks but haven't been trained how to do their jobs and / or how to use the computer systems in front of them.
The aircraft are required to park in the tightest parking area you've ever seen.... you wouldn't even want to park a Cessna 172 in there.... but they expect us to manoeuvre a wingletted B737 in there with the assistance of a marshaller whose hand-signals & gesticulations would win 1st prize in a Break Dancing competition!
The cabin crew are nice... but one gets the distinct impression that in the event of a real emergency they'd not manage all that well... but one might be wrong?!
Until recently there were no published SOPS... but of which, those since published (
on a few pages of A4), had mistakes, inconsistencies or bits missing.
There's no Ops Manual Part A or Part D... and Part B is just the vanilla Boeing Manual. The cabin crew manual is little more than a plagiarism from some EU based airlines.
What little / few manuals exist (
they are certainly NOT on the aircraft btw) make no reference to, and in places are at odds with, various laws as defined in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCAR's).
There is seemingly no Flight Training Department at Arik.. or if there is I'd like to know who the FTM is and / or see a copy of the Ops Manual / Part D?!
Nigeria seemingly has no flight time limitations... and of if there are would somebody please be kind enough to publish them and / or explain them to us all?!
Hotel’s are allocated on an arbitrary basis. One in particular place (
name escape me) is atrocious and was banned from use by the HR manager (
not that this stopped the Protocol Dept.. who still went ahead booked places there regardless). So when the HR manager took pilots out of there and put them in the Sheraton (
as a temporary measure, as nothing else was available) he was summarily sacked by the Chairman, in a most embarrassing manner, albeit then re-instated but without apology (
and, by the way, Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission / EFCC had some interesting views on Arik's Chairman Mr.Johnson Arumemi-Ikhide <-- click the link).
Arik think nothing of paying their staff late (
e.g. 1 week, or more), without any reason being given, or an apology, or recompense.
When you do get paid, 10% of it will be in Naira,... but you won't be able to spend it, 'coz you'll be stuck in your hotel... and / or unless you've got lots of 'lady friends' from the Sheraton Hotel nightclub?
Now unlike working in Miami, in Lagos you will be escorted to / from work in the Arik bus (
when it turns up at your hotel and / or at the convenience of Arik's van driver mafia – plus / minus 15 minutes either side of the reported pickup time, if you’re lucky - and similarly so when you're waiting to go home after a long day of multi-sectors... see above about FTL’s) wherein you'll be joined in the bus by an AK47 toting Nigerian Policeman who will riding along in the front passenger seat to make sure you get to / from work safely.
As already mentioned above, when not at work, you'll be marooned in your hotel, as the personal security situation outside on the streets is very poor and you have to be very careful (
venturing outside ones hotel at night... without an armed guard in tow and toting an AK47... would definitely be asking for it!... and even with an armed guard it is ill-advised ).
8 weeks of the same hotel menu can be soul destroying.
The highlight of the week is going to the Sheraton Hotel for a few beers on a Friday night, assuming you're not working that evening, or on early’s the next day and, most important of all, assuming that you can find a willing enough Arik driver (
and obligatory Policeman) to take you there AND bring you home, safely.
That said, some might be pleased to hear that the hotels & guest houses that you stay in are night-fighter (
hooker) friendly, so you can always bring a new ‘companion’ home with you from the Sheraton (
its nightclub is loaded with them!).
Nb. There's an unofficial SOP that fraternising with your Arik cabin crew is strictly forbidden - apparently by order of the Chairman - which is a shame, as some of the ladies are babelicious!
Mosquitos are rife, even in the aircraft (
and especially in Maiduguri in the morning in the crew bus)
Nuff said.
