Kudos, Nigeria’s Air Travel market is now making waves as the emerging hub of international air travel and has recently won the interest of the major players from the Middle-East.

Royal Jordanian, Etihad Airways, the national carriers of the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and Jordan, launched daily and fortnightly flights into Lagos consecutively, within one year, and indications are that region are gearing up to launch operations into Nigeria.

However, besides the 14 weekly flights already in operation by Emirates, another 14 by Qatar Airways, and others still, by their counterpart border airlines, such as Afriquiyya Airways (Tripoli), Egypt Air (Cairo) and Turkish Airlines (Istanbul).

A senior official of the airline at the launch of Royal Jordanian into Nigeria last week said that a survey conducted showed that daily operations into Nigeria would be useful to their  expansion strategy into other network.

Maurice Phohleli, Etihad Airways’ general manager, Nigeria and West Africa, during the airlines’ first anniversary in Nigeria, commented that there is a huge amount of international interest and investment focused towards Nigeria.

John Ojikutu, a travel analyst said that the Middle-Eastern carriers have no choice but to work on the gaps that have been created as a result of lack of capacity from Nigerian carriers, adding that apart from this, travelers now see an international travel market hub in countries in the Middle-East, as against Europe and the United States.

Olu Ohunayo, a travel analyst with Zenith Travels, said that Nigeria is a natural hub for the West African market with a stable democracy and an itinerant population that does not hold back on spending and picking high yield seats.