Lagos to Port Harcourt
 

I shall be making regular business trips to Nigeria over the next few years and this will mean flying internally in Nigeria (which I dread for some reason).

I flew from Lagos to Port Harcourt on September the 11th 2002 with Nigeria Airways, usually I love flying but I was full of butterflies that day and it was not because of the date.

The 737 Nigeria Airways were using for the flight had definatley seen better days, luckily I managed to fly first class (ahem). Generally the interior of the aircraft was in a shabby condition, the carpets were well worn and the lock on my overhead locked was broken (this remained open for the entire flight).

You can generally judge a resturant by the state of the toilets, so I began judging the state of the aircraft by the state of the interior. I kept saying to myself "This plane has flown 2-3 times a day for over 20 years so there will be no problem" (gulp).

Anyway, the pilot fired up engine one with the door still open as you can imagine to noise was deafining. After a few minutes a steward came to close the door after throwing a dozen overbooked passengers off, then I noticed another problem. The seals around the door were completely shot, they were hanging all over the place. When the door was shut I could see shafts of light peering through the outside of it.

Anyway at the end of the day the 90min or so flight was smooth and everyting went well, we arrived in Port Harcourt on time and safely.

As I said I love flying, particulary to obscure places like Port Harcourt but I ain't flying Nigeria Airways again in a hurry. I flew back with an airline called ADC on another oldish 737 but the plane just looked much cleaner and nicer.

My question to you pilots is: "Should I have anything to worry about flying internally in Nigeria?" If so which Airlines do you reccommend?

:uhoh:

I don't think it matters which airline you fly, its the ATC on both ends you need to worry about.

Scary to say the least.

Fly ACN , Aero Contractors Nigeria, or AERO as it is known if they do the route you need. I'm sure they do LOS to Port Harcourt.

Costs a bit more but its worth it. Aero is run by Schreiner and they have ben around a while.

Don't go on a BAC 11-1 if you can help it.
just my opinion

I'd agree with ColeFace. I spent many years flying the LOS-PHC route. After a particularly nasty accident when a Boeing 727 of ADC nose-dived into a swamp near Lagos, AERO were approached by a consortium of the expat company's in Port Harcourt to fly the route as a "Group Charter". This has now become essentially a schedule flight, it's a little more expensive and a little slower than the 30 year old Boeings that fly the route.

There was also another western company which operated with Dash-7's called Skyline (50% Israel's Arkia); I'm not sure whether they are still operating, as I see several of their aircraft in maintenance in Tel Aviv when I fly through.

The Skyline Dash-7s were running July of last year but can't say about now. Hard to miss them as the paint scheme is outstanding, one is a fish I believe.

Aero runs Dash-8s and are maintened/crewed by Schreiner out of Holland so its first class.

I would not strap my backside to any A/C that goes into Port Harcourt before about 10.00LT as there is always fog and it does not burn off til about that time.

Quite a few operators have come to grief, over the years, by not following this simple rule.

That is how I remember it.

Too right on all counts. Avoid Nigeria Airways (Are they even still flying? I've been out of Nigeria for almost a year with no plans to return) and the private domestic outfits. There is a real problem of safety culture.

Aero are good, I remember seeing the Dash 7s last year (Hard to miss them) but don't have any experience myself.

Doubley-Anchor
 

Pity I didn´t know this fog problem . I flew years there in early mornings and thought that it was a low cloud base.
Blues

Air Afrique,
If you're really concerned about safety, my suggestion to you is to patronize aero or dana. aero operates dash 8's and dana operates dornier 328 on the phc route. I suggest you lean more to dana bcos of the non-availability of seats on aero flights. You can check out both outfits at: www.acn.aero & www.dananig.com; you'll get all the details you need there.
cheers

Just to sideline to a little the Skyline colour schemes come from the parent airline (Arkia), they were painted for the Club Hotel Group in Eilat, Israel. Until Arkia swapped out the Dash's for ATR72's I used to fly them regularly internally within Israel, on my monthly commute to Nigeria.

As for DANA, I only flew them once to Warri, and had no problems, mind you I was the only pax. I also used to have to travel to Malabo from Lagos and would take the trip via Douala with Cam-Air just to avoid flying Nigeria Airways (I think we still have a company travel ban on this airline). The private airlines are more expensive, but I consider them safer.

Greetings from Kazakhstan

Five years dashing about that part of Nigeria.....exactly one choice for you in my book.....ACN...AeroContractors....enjoy the sandwich....have a cold drink....and relax....odds are with you in making it. Sage advice about midmorning flights.....each direction really. I have done the other local scare-lines....preferred driving to flying them (days before ACN was doing their airline thing)...but that isn't a choice now unless you really are a suicidal type.

Aerocontractors are the way to go. Well maintained Dash 8's, beer and sandwiches, reasonably on time, no probs experienced so far with many LOS-PHC-LOS sectors getting grounds ops setup for the wooly pullies.

A colleague was on the flight deck jumpseat waiting for departure back to London out of LOS. They were holding just short of the runway for an arrival. Suddenly, the Captain was radioing to the effect of 'inbound aircraft - go around, go around'. It transpired it was a Bellview 737 attempting a landing with no gear.................Doncha just love it!:ok: