Cross River Airline 2nd Boeing 737 Aircraft, Delivered

Cross River State governor, Sir Ben Ayade, Wednesday took delivery of yet another Boeing 737 aircraft at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos for the state’s commercial airline, Cally Air.

The arrival of the second aircraft is coming barely three weeks after the first one was received on April 6, 2021.

On ground to receive the second aircraft at Arik Air hanger in Lagos were the trio of the state Commissioner for Finance, Auquo Ekpeyong Jr., Director-General of of Due Process, Alphonsus Ogar, Director-General, Bureau of Public Private Partnership, Udiba Udiba.

The two Boeing 737 aircraft have a carrying capacity of 142 and 144 passenger respectively.

Ayade while announcing the floating of Cally Air, early this year, had decried the prohibitive air transport cost in the country, particularly the Lagos-Calabar and Calabar Abuja routes, querying why “a passenger would pay over N70,000 to fly to Calabar? The route to Calabar either from Lagos or Abuja is the most expensive in Nigeria.”

The governor explained that the outrageous charges was due to “the fact that there is no corresponding surplus of airlines coming into Calabar. So it is a responsibility of government to respond to the challenge of our people, recognizing that they are being extorted as a result of monopoly.”