A domestic carrier, Dana Air took delivery of its first Boeing 737-300 aircraft.
The new aircraft with registration number 5N-DNA and a configuration for 143 passengers arrived at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2, Lagos from Italy. It was reportedly received with water cannon showers from men of the firefighters of the Federal Airport Authority Nigeria.
The Chief Operating Officer and Accountable Manager of the airline, Obi Mbanuzor, said the second Boeing aircraft numbered 5N-DNB would arrive in Nigeria in a few weeks, adding that the plan was to increase the airline’s fleet to nine before the end of the year.
He also spoke about plans to phase out the MD83 aircraft which the airline had used since the commencement of its operations.
He said, “Currently, the Boeing aircraft is the most popular passenger aircraft in Nigeria. Dana Air went through a long road for this and we have had it as a plan for a long time but it was staggered due to economic and other realities .”
Mbanuzor also said the airline would soon open more routes, in addition to its existing destinations in Nigeria.
“Dana Air is slow and steady and methodological; we don’t open routes just like that but we take out time. On the return to our West Coast routes, we have that as a plan; maybe from 2020 upwards. But for now, we are concentrating on serving the Nigerian routes,” he said
Last year, Dana Air stated that it had flown over 2.7 million passengers in the nine years of its operations.
The airline in partnership with Asky Airline had previously introduced a B737-700 for its ‘Early Bird’ flights between Lagos and Abuja in 2018.
Its Media and Communications Manager, Kingsley Ezenwa, had said the B737 aircraft would be used on the Lagos-Abuja route.
