Virgin Nigeria Airways Limited has announced the beginning of its direct flights services from Abuja, Nigeria, to Accra, Ghana – just days after announcing its expected new flights to Banjul, The Gambia. The first flight departed Abuja Tuesday night [19th] May 2009, with top diplomats, and Foreign Service officials, and other passengers who maximized the flight opportunity of the service to land in the Ghanaian capital.

Speaking on the development, the airline’s Corporate Communications Manager, Francis Ayigbe said. “This is only a natural step forward as we continue to establish the airline’s dominance on the domestic and regional routes. As Nigeria’s flag carrier, we are proud that we have been able to connect two of Africa’s seats of power directly.” He further said, ‘’this will be a thrill to customers from Abuja and other northern states, who rather than fly into Lagos to connect flights to Accra, from Abuja would simply fly the airline from Abuja to Accra and points beyond – as the airline offers other connections beyond Accra.

‘’Ghana and Nigeria share a lot of commonalities, and the volume of trade and commerce has steadily grown, with both countries playing key roles in the development of the sub region through instruments such as Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).’’ This is coming just as the airline has also increased frequencies on some of its other routes including Lagos to Accra, Douala to Libreville, Lagos to Duoala, Lagos to Dakar on the regional routes, and Lagos to Owerri, Lagos to Abuja, and Lagos to Port Harcourt on the domestic routes.

The Abuja-Accra flights will operate twice weekly and with no stopovers in Lagos. Also commenting on the new flight, Funmi Aiyepekun, the airline’s Head of Marketing noted that the flights from Abuja to Accra continue without interrupting the Lagos – Accra flights. “We have also increased our frequencies on the Lagos-Accra route. We are committed as promised to ensuring that travel for our customers on the domestic and West African routes is as seamless and convenient as possible.” For more information on this offer and other low fares and special tour packages, the airline’s customers can visit the Virgin Nigeria website.