Airline Name
Nigeria AirwaysIATA: WT / ICAO: NGA / Callsign: NIGERIA
Country of Origin
Nigeria
Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
B742 (747-200B) (13 operated, all leased between 1980 and 2002 from a host of different operators),Scandinavian lease in company’s main livery,
The BA leased livery in 1998/9 (Personal favourite and would make for an excellent special event livery, was a joint service between BA and Nigeria Airways),
Final livery (2 ex-VA aircraft operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic for flying the Lagos to New York route in 2002/03, was also used on the LHR route),
Virgin Atlantic silver alternate variant,
B743 (747-300) (1 leased and operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic in 2001 for 4 weeks),
SAA partnership with Nigeria Airways 747-300 (Operated as part of South African but flew via Lagos from the likes of Frankfurt and New York on its way back to South Africa),
B762 (767-200) (2 leased and operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic between 2002 and 2003 for the Lagos to LHR route),
B732 (737-200) (25 operated, mix of Adv and not),
Later livery,
Not in-game,
DC10 (Douglas DC 10-30) (6 operated),
Shortlived Air Nigeria/Nigeria Airways hybrid livery (Formed when Nigeria Airways went bankrupt and the government decided to try and privatise by splitting in 2 in 1993 but this ended quickly with only 1 DC10 and 1 A310 being repainted),
A310 (A310-200) (4 operated),
Earlier tail logo,
Shortlived Air Nigeria/Nigeria Airways hybrid livery (As per DC 10),
B703C (707-300C),
B722 (727-200),
VC10 (Vickers VC10) (3 operated),
2 different liveries, photos are hard to find,
Why should this airline be added?
Found in 1958 after the dissolution of WAAC (West African Airways Corporation), this airline flew a fleet of British and Dutch built aircraft in the 1960s. In 1975 the route network comprised of domestic destinations served from Kano and Lagos, and international routes to Abidjan, Amsterdam, Accra, Bathurst, Beirut, Brussels, Dakar, Douala, Frankfurt, Freetown, London, Madrid, Monrovia, New York, Paris and Rome.The first DC10 arrived in 1976 finally allowing the airline to utilise its own aircraft on international routes instead of leasing DC 8’s and 707’s. During this time the airline achieved good prosperity after the government brought in a management team from KLM to make it profitable, which they did. This team placed an order for 4 A310-200’s in 1981 becoming Airbus’ 40th customer, which arrived in 1984, for operations to Europe. On the 31st December 1983, Nigeria had a military coup which led to the new military leaders shaking up the airline and dismissing the KLM management team and the majority of the staff trained by them for some unbeknownst reason.
After this the airline started a steady downward trend, haemorrhaging money and accumulating debts throughout the mid-late 80s, they began cutting staff in an attempt to save money whilst also offloading some of their international African routes to the private airline Okada Air. Entering into the 1990s, the airline had cut a third of its staff as well as offloading multiple aircraft (One of the A310-200’s was stored at Lagos in 1988 where it sat until scrapped in 2006, it flew for 4 years) with accidents and debts mounting throughout the 1990s. In 1999, the IFC presented 3 plans to help the Nigerian Government restructure and privatise the airline, one of which was to partner with a European carrier like Lufthansa, Air France, Swissair, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways who were all considered, another idea was to liquidate the airline.
After a couple more years of bad management and burning piles of money, the government decided to liquidate the airline in 2003, ending its operations.
It should be added as it was the flag carrier of Nigeria for many years, operating a mixed fleet with a prominent livery and being a regular carrier at an airport we have in-game for 50 years. The 747-200 would be the best currently to showcase the airline, with the main livery being the likely choice but I’d also love to see that 1998/99 BA livery.