Arik Air seeks global ad agency for 10m brief

Arik Air, the Nigerian airline, is seeking an agency to handle its global advertising business, ahead of launching an international carrier later this year. The account is worth an estimated £10m.

The airline is understood to have already approached several agencies about its account. It is thought the review will be handled from its London headquarters.

Ojemai Investments, which owns the airline, is known to be keen to promote both its brand and its new routes and services. Arik Air currently operates a number of domestic services with only one international connection to Ghana’s capital city Accra.

It now intends to expand its service to the Far East and the US from the Nigerian capital of Lagos. It has already been granted four landing slots at Heathrow from September, and hopes to increase this to a daily service.

Arik Air took over the former Nigeria Airways facilities in Lagos three years after the company went into liquidation.

Earlier this month it announced an order of seven next-generation 737s at the Farnborough Airshow, taking its total on order to 17.