Bizarre: Antigua Airways, A New Nigerian-Owned Airline

The Caribbean and Africa will be connected by a new airline. I am aware that you are writing about another imaginary airline. The first flight is currently airborne.

The basics of Antigua Airways

Antigua Airways is a new airline that is promoting itself as the "Pride of the Caribbean" The airline wants to provide service from St. John's to several destinations.

• Accra, Ghana (ACC)
• Lagos, Nigeria (LOS)
• Toronto, Canada (YYZ)

The primary investor in the airline is a Nigerian company. The company has no experience in the airline industry. The government of Antigua and Barbuda has a 20% stake in the other 20%.

This is an important link to West Africa and has the potential for significant economic benefit and investment according to the government.

LIAT is a regional airline that has a fleet of a few turboprops. The airline was close to going out of business for a long time.

Antigua Airways operates inaugural flight

The inaugural Antigua Airways flight left Lagos early this morning and is on its way to St. John's. The flight can be tracked here.

Antigua Airways doesn't actually operate its own planes at the moment. The airline is starting operations with a leased Boeing 767-300ER that has 267 seats, including 16 business class seats and 251 economy class seats. The crew and plane are all from EuroAtlantic.

Antigua Airways is selling a one-week tour package with a departure from Lagos on October 31 and a return on November 6. It's not clear what service the airline will offer after that.

Antigua Airways sells tickets online the same way a mom-and-pop store sells flowers. The company is charging.

• A “Flight Ticket” costs ~$3,421
• An “Economy Class Package,” including roundtrip economy class travel, accommodation, and a visa, costs ~$4,333
• A “Business Class Package,” including roundtrip business class travel, accommodation, and a visa, costs ~$9,122

I'm confused.

• A roundtrip economy ticket costs over $3K?! The package prices aren’t exactly reasonable either, with business class costing nearly $5K extra roundtrip
• You can go through the process of buying this, even though the only published flight schedule has already departed
• It’s not even clarified what kind of accommodation you’re getting, which seems like something that should be clarified

This is very, very strange

Since people are curious how government funds are being spent, this new airline concept has received a lot of criticism. I am not the only one who finds this all to be a mystery.

A Nigerian printing company is partnering with the government of Antigua and Barbuda to start an airline. The flights were expensive a few weeks before launch.

This doesn't seem like a traditional airline startup to me. EuroAtlantic Airways might have gotten payment in advance.

Bottom line

A Nigerian company and the government of Antigua and Barbuda formed an airline startup called Antigua Airways. The first flight from St. John's to Toronto is already in the air.

I'm curious to see how this will evolve.

What do you think of the airline?