Arik Air enhances offering with mobile and tablet app for customers
Arik Air, West and Central Africa’s largest commercial carrier, has continued the ongoing revamp of its technology offering by becoming the first sub-Saharan airline to introduce a mobile and tablet booking app, in a drive to further enhance its customer experience.
The announcement follows Arik’s decision to partner with mobile commerce firm SlimTrader in August, to provide the airline’s recently launched mobile booking service. Free to download on Blackberry, iOS, or Android devices, the app marks the latest of a raft of planned enhancements in the coming months.
Once downloaded, the Arik app presents consumers with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. Customers enter their preferred dates and number of passengers, then select the flight or flights from their desired schedule. Payment is similarly simple and because the app is unique to Arik, there are no fees leveled by third-party booking services, leaving customers with the best possible rate.
The app also includes a ‘Remember Me” feature, allowing customers to easily pick a card from a list of their registered cards without needing to enter full details of their bank card each time they make a purchase. Arik is the first organization in Nigeria or West Africa to seamlessly integrate this feature into its offering.
Dr Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, Arik Air’s Global Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The popularity of mobile commerce has increased massively in Africa and we are delighted to be the first Sub-Saharan African airline to offer customers a dedicated booking app to enhance our service.
“Mobile penetration far exceeds the reach of the internet in Nigeria and West Africa and additions like this help position Arik as a 21st Century operator, using cutting edge technology to improve ease of service and customer interaction.”
Femi Akinde, CEO of SlimTrader, commented: “As an E-commerce platform that seeks to help enterprises distribute their goods and services across multiple digital channels, we are extremely happy to be a part of Arik’s history-making service offerings on mobile devices.”
About Arik Air:
Arik Air (www.arikair.com) is Nigeria and West Africa’s largest airline and operates mainly from two hubs at Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja.
It operates a fleet of 25 state-of-the art regional, medium haul and long haul aircraft including Airbus A330-200 and A340-500 making the airline the first operator of the wide bodied aircraft in West Africa.
The airline currently serves 20 destinations across Nigeria as well as Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia), Dakar (Senegal), Freetown (Sierra Leone), Monrovia (Liberia),and Douala (Cameroon), Luanda (Angola), Kinshasa (Congo Democratic Republic), London Heathrow (UK), Johannesburg (South Africa) and New York JFK (USA).The airline operates a combined number of about 120 daily flights from its hubs in Lagos and Abuja, and has been Africa’s fastest growing airline for the last two years.
