Nigeria�s flag carrier, Virgin Nigeria, has been voted Airline of the year. The honour was bestowed on the airline at the 12th annual ThisDay awards which was held at MUSON centre, Onikan, Lagos.
Virgin Nigeria beat the other three competing airlines that were also nominated. Dr. Yemi Osindero, the Chief Operating Officer received the trophy on behalf of the airline.
To ensure transparency in the selection process, the auditing and verification process for the awards were carried out by foremost international auditors, Price Water House Coopers. Among the criteria used to assess the nomination and select the eventual winner � Virgin Nigeria � were safety, size of network, on time performance and product offerings.
Commenting on the award, the CEO of Virgin Nigeria, Conrad Clifford said: “It�s gratifying that in only 20 months since the commencement of Virgin Nigeria operations, the airline has been voted as the airline of the year through a transparent process managed by the reputable firm of Price Water House Coopers”.
“More importantly, Virgin Nigeria takes this award as a vote of confidence from our discerning customers. We are very grateful to them and we want to re-assure them that we will intensify our efforts at building a world class airline in Nigeria, the heart of Africa”.
Continuing, Conrad said: “I speak for the whole board when I say how proud we are of our employees who have worked hard to realise this award”.
“Our thanks also go to Leaders & Company, publishers of This Day Newspapers for their unique contribution to the growth of the aviation sector in Nigeria through the awards”.
Virgin Nigeria�s Airline of the Year award is coming on the heels of the nomination of Virgin Nigeria as one of the three best African carriers by the Association of South African Travel Agents (ASATA). The South African awards come up on Friday, March 23, 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The ASATA awards are aimed at identifying service providers in the travel industry who offer the best service to travel agents and have been held for the last 16 years. About 2500 travel consultants were contacted via a telephone interview process conducted by the reputable firm of Grant Thorton from which the three nominated airlines, including VNA were selected.
With over 1,000 employees, Virgin Nigeria whose introduction was heralded by customers as the new face of flying, commenced operations about 20 months ago and currently flies from Lagos to twelve destinations on the domestic, regional and international routes.