Ibom Air (QI, Uyo) is planning to offer direct flights from Nigeria to Cameroon in the near future according to a report carried by the Vanguard Nigeria daily newspaper.

Talking to the media recently, Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government, Emmanuel Ekuwem said: “There’s a demand from our neighbouring country, Cameroon, for Cameroonians to be connected directly to Lagos or Abuja instead of flying to Lomé [Togo] before connecting a flight to Abuja or Lagos.”

During his briefing, he revealed that Ibom Air has traffic rights to fly to Cameroon from Uyo, Abuja or Lagos and that the airline was planning to launch flights to Douala initially. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, ASKY Airlines (KP, Lomé) is currently the only carrier operating between Cameroon and Nigeria offering three weekly flights from Lagos to Douala and from Abuja to Yaoundé Nsimalen.

There are currently no details on the new Douala route specifics like the planned start date or weekly frequency, although Ekuwem confirmed that Uyo's international terminal building will be ready to handle flights before the end of 2020.

Ibom Air, which commenced scheduled operations in June last year, presently operates a 17x weekly service from Uyo to Abuja and a similar weekly frequency to Lagos with its fleet of three CRJ900s.