Virgin Atlantic CEO in Nigeria, unveils growth plans, sets to own youngest fleet

His words, “The plans are to retire the old planes like B747 and A340 for the new ones that are coming. B747 by the way has been a fantastic plane. Everybody loves the B747. The passengers absolutely love it especially the upper deck but it has been 50 years that it has been flying and there are new technologies, better planes, more efficient, more noise efficient and we are moving to those. We are not saying we have been operating B747 for 50 years. We retired one actually last week”.

Weiss explained that airlines are measured by the age of their fleet, stressing that all it takes to know the age of the fleet of airline is by doing the calculation and get the average age.

“By 2024, we want to retire all the B747. The total age of our fleet is 5.3 years. We have a young fleet. Planes can fly for 20, 30 years and more. The A350 is a fantastic plane, it is very fuel efficient. If you look at the Co2 in 2024 and you compare it ten years before that, it will reduce by 40 per cent and that is one of the biggest thing airlines can do to reduce co2 emission which I know will be also important for Nigeria”.

 There is nothing better than the A350. Being our best equipment, growing by ten per cent, increasing our presence and going to the Virgin of old, you will know that we are serious about this market allows you to connect freely to other parts of the world through London, other places. This is our renewed focus on Lagos, Nigeria as essential part of our business. When things were tough here three years ago, we did not leave. It was easy to leave. It cost us a lot of money to stay. It was difficult with capital restriction of the Naira and the repatriation of fund, we stuck it out because we are committed to Nigeria. You are going to see better service.

“Virgin Atlantic is 35 this year, flying to Lagos 18 years. You have to evolve. It doesn’t mean that we cannot be sexy. If you got on this plane, I tell you, it is a sexy plane. You need to grow to become more sexy again and we are back to growth. The approach of Virgin Atlantic is different. We were all younger when we fell in love. I know love is different when you are a bit older”.

“We know that the growth in Nigeria is going to be second to none because the population growth is so big. We have to it in a responsible way. That is what that means and we say we have the cleanest, the youngest and the quietest fleet which you know that for some locations which we land, noise is also a big consideration. In Heathrow, you have to have a very clear guidelines and if you don’t meet those guidelines, you will be required to pay taxes”, he added.

Asked if the carrier was looking at expansion into more cities in Nigeria, the airline chief  said his company was in growth mode not only in Nigeria where they have made some strides but expanding to other cities like Tel Aviv, increasing its flights to Mumbai and opening up services to South America.

He stated that the airline would look into opportunities and see how beneficial it would be to it, noting that it won’t fail to sieze opportunities if they would be beneficial not only to its global brand but to its customers.

 “We shouldn’t forget the pilgrimages from Lagos and want to go to Jerusalem and they can go through London. There is another dimension to our flight out of Lagos. We will grow and the airport capacity and agreement between Nigeria and UK on how many days we fly out of here is part of it. Our desires are complicated. If it was an opportunity to grow and we could do this to serve our passengers, serve our businesses, and we can do this in a sustainable way we will do it”.

Virgin Atlantic is working towards becoming the airline with the youngest fleet by 2024 by acquiring some of the newest airplanes that are fuel efficiency, environmentally friendly.

He was however not forthcoming when asked if Virgin Atlantic would consider domestic flight operations in Nigeria either as an airline or through franchise agreement, he jokingly said the media should not start such campaign.

He asks, “Did you plan that question with Chief John Adebanjo? Don’t start that campaign as much as we love you guys. (Laughter). My take will be are we really well positioned to do this? That will be my first take. Do we really have advantage as Virgin Atlantic to come to Nigeria and really help Nigeria in the domestic operation? Ofcourse we are excellent brand. We have experience in aviation ofcourse with Sir Richard Branson. We were here before, we have that experience. Sometimes failing and doing it again wouldn’t be bad. Like Mumbai, we are restarting Mumbai”.

He noted that the company would continue to pursue the vision of being the most loved travel company that has got to be its mission.

“This is our vision for the company. Most travel companies would never say the word love and travel. It is pretty demanding and audacious but we think that if anyone can be most loved, it is Virgin Atlantic and it is because of our people. We have a lot to do; we can improve, we can innovate, we can do better. The next five years is to return to growth, return to profitability so that we can invest more in our people and customers to become most loved.

He lamented the circumstances that led to the collapse of Virgin Nigeria, describing it as a sad incident.

He lamented that the carrier came to Nigeria for the sole purpose of putting an airline in place as the pride of Africa but unfortunately, government that came after said they were not part of the decision that was taken to set up the airline’; a decision that led Sir Richard Branson to take his stake out of the airline which eventually led to its demise.

Speaking in the same vein, Nigeria’s representative in Virgin Nigeria, Chief John Adebanjo said, “When a new government came, the politic as you know it in this country, nothing is certain. If new government comes in, certain policy changes and that was what we experienced which was very sad incident”.

 It is a wound that is still very hurting. That was the biggest thing. Launching an airline and shutting it down after four years is painful. It was painful for money lost and people who lost their jobs. Opening an airline, if you want to succeed and to have to shut it down is heart breaking especially when you think you can do a good service”.

“That was the low point for us. You could see today, what we had in place then is what most of the local airlines are doing. In the past, to fly to Abuja, you have to go to the airport and look for the next available flight, but when we came in, we said, no, you can’t do that. We said you have to buy your ticket and be guaranteed that you are going on the next flight. That was what Arik did, Aero Contractors and the rest of them. That was what Virgin Atlantic did through Virgin Nigeria. There are plenty of opportunities for us to pursue through the best ones”.