With a modern airport facility and an advanced aircraft fleet, Ibom Air is positioning itself for greater dominance of Nigeria’s domestic and regional air travel market.
Akwa Ibom State has, through successive administrations, prioritised aviation as a vehicle for economic development and job creation, driven by a long-term vision to establish the state as a major player in the sector.
The state has consistently trained its citizens in different areas of aviation, with the broader objective of developing the human capacity required to play a significant role in transporting people and goods by air.
The state is gradually realising that vision. With a new airport terminal regarded as one of the best in Nigeria and West Africa, Uyo has strengthened its position as an aviation hub, supported by key components required for hub operations, including a modern terminal, maintenance facilities and an expanding aircraft fleet.
The development was achieved over several years of planning, investment and implementation. Ibom Air now connects several cities across Nigeria and has also tested regional operations through its Lagos-Accra and later Uyo-Accra services, which have laid the groundwork for plans to add more regional destinations in the coming months.
On Tuesday, the airline welcomed another brand-new Airbus A220-300 at the Victor Attah International Airport in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
With the addition of the state-of-the-art aircraft, Ibom Air said it would resume services to previously suspended destinations while expanding its operations into regional markets.
The fuel-efficient Airbus A220-300 was flown directly to Nigeria from the Airbus assembly facility in Mirabel, Canada.
Speaking during the event, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, disclosed operational statistics showing the airline’s steady growth since its inception and its emerging ambition to become a major regional operator.
According to the Governor, Ibom Air has airlifted about 4,953,512 passengers through 65,152 scheduled flights and is expected to cross the five-million passenger threshold before the end of September 2026.
Eno said the addition of the new A220-300 had increased the airline’s fleet to 10 aircraft, comprising seven Bombardier CRJ-900s and three Airbus A220-300s. Five of the aircraft were acquired under his administration.
“Over N60 billion has been directly spent in the Akwa Ibom local economy through airline operations. The carrier maintains 753 full-time direct employees, with Akwa Ibom indigenes making up 64 percent (478 personnel) of the workforce, alongside an estimated 2,000 indirect jobs sustained across the state,” Eno said.
The Governor disclosed that Ibom Air, which currently services seven domestic destinations and one regional destination, Accra in Ghana, would expand its network from eight to 12 destinations and increase its route operations from eight to 15.
The expansion includes one new domestic connection and three new regional routes to Douala in Cameroon, Libreville in Gabon and Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.
Ibom Air’s Chairman, Mfon Udo, said the arrival of the new A220-300 would immediately restore core domestic flight frequencies while providing the operational foundation for expanded intra-African connectivity.
“With the arrival of our new A220-300, we are going to expand our activities both domestically and regionally. Immediately, we will return to our normal frequencies in the domestic system, such as three daily flights to Uyo from Lagos and Abuja, and restoring our Lagos–Abuja service back to seven daily frequencies.
“Most important is the regional route. At the moment, we are only flying Uyo to Accra. We will be going to Douala, Libreville, and Malabo in the first phase, and expand further across Africa over the next two years as we receive the remainder of our 10 ordered aircraft via direct purchase and lease-to-own structures.”
Addressing market dynamics, Udo emphasised the relationship between domestic passenger traffic and economic activity, saying Ibom Air was positioned to capture a significant share of the expected regional growth.
“We continue to expand our ecosystem, and that is what gives us the strength, new ideas, and all that. With the arrival of our new A220, we are going to expand our activities, both domestic and regional. So, immediately we will return to our normal frequencies in the domestic system.”
Speaking to journalists at the unveiling of the aircraft, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Aviation, who is also in charge of the Ministry of Aviation and Airport Development, Owem Ekanem, said the Akwa Ibom State Government had invested in training indigenes in various technical areas of aviation.
“Within the Ministry of Aviation itself, we have trained engineers. We have even trained those engineers who man the MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul). And the state has a pilot training scheme where we have trained pilots. Some of those pilots today fly for Ibom Air. So that is just to show that it is a planned programme. And, you know, in the country we have paucity of pilots. So, what we have done is to ensure we don’t get into that logjam that we might not have pilots to operate our flights. This is why the state has trained pilots. And like I said, some of them are already flying. We have also trained engineers. Some are currently in Ethiopia, as we speak,” he disclosed.
On the airport and the airline, Ekanem said Akwa Ibom was developing what he described as “a city within a city.”
“We are developing, like you said, the MRO, which will bring in that needed foreign exchange. We are also improving connectivity. We are also boosting tourism. His Excellency is big on tourism. We are also creating employment opportunity for the teeming Akwa Ibom youths. We also have cargo project in view. So it is an entire aviation ecosystem that we want to extend to,” Ekanem added.
A stakeholder and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from Akwa Ibom State, Senator Emmanuel Iwagunzin, told THISDAY that the decision to develop aviation as a key legacy of the state was a collective one in which he also played a significant role.
According to the Senator, the state’s political leaders who conceived the vision had to resist opposition from some top political circles in Nigeria when they were discouraged from pursuing their plans.
“In 1999, it was Victor Atta (former governor of the state) and myself and Senator Udo Udoma that went to Houston (United States). And there we conceived the idea of this airport and the aviation industry in Akwa Ibom. And it was from there that we visited a couple of installations.
“And we settled on who should come and develop Akwa Ibom airport. And by God’s grace, when we were acquiring this place (the airport), it became a very difficult situation because the President at that time, did not want us to build an airport. He said, if Victor Atta had so much money, he should give it to the federal government to build and expand Calabar International Airport. But he came anyways and laid the foundation despite the protest. So we are happy that this airport has come to stay,” the Senator said.
Beyond the airport and airline operations, the aviation infrastructure is increasingly playing a critical role in Akwa Ibom State’s economic development, with the government seeking to use the sector to improve connectivity, create employment, support tourism, develop aviation-related technical capacity and establish a broader aviation ecosystem.
