Facebook & Twitter Competition

Aerocontractors recently started a new facebook ‘like page’ – type out Aerocontractors in full on the search box of your facebook home page and like the page. We’ll be doing a raffle draw to give out free tickets once we hit 1500likes. Please note that only the 1st 1500 qualify for the draw. Get your friends to like the page.

CONGRATULATIONS to Owoyemi Odunayo (@OdunayoNG2002) winner of the free return ticket last week on the twitter competition, fetching us the highest number of followers).

Aero Enlarges Its Rotary Wing Fleet

Over the years, we have steadily built both our fleet and reputation, offering a world class aviation service that is based on excellence and professionalism. We have empowered more people to fly by offering great value-for-money fares for business and leisure travellers, and for visiting family and friends.

With an impeccable record, Aero remains at the forefront of regional aviation standards. While we forge ahead to expand our fleet and travel options, we are also determined and committed to offering our teeming customers the best overall travel experience in the country. In terms of on-time departure and arrival, making Aero the airline of choice thanks to its pedigree for reliability and safety.

Only recently, we announced an increase in our fixed wing fleet by adding a Boeing 737.We also just added two Eurocopter 365N2 Dauphins and one Augusta Westland AW139 helicopter to our rotary wing fleet to bolster the capacity of our support for the oil and gas sector. This acquisition is part of the airlines expansion programme to double the fleet and add new destinations. It is important to note that Aero Helicopters portfolio of products has been designed to provide customers with straight-forward aviation solutions that are simple to use and easy to understand. The airline’s helicopter services have been duly designed according to international standards of operation and specification, supported by unique recovery promises.

Aero has been the leading provider of helicopter services to the offshore energy industry through the years. With a fleet of over 12 modern reliable helicopters at our disposal, we have the ability to tailor our services to suit customer’s particular requirements.

Aero provides helicopter services to a wide variety of customers, including clients in the public, private, oil and gas sectors. It operates flights for sightseeing, rescue, medical evacuation, corporate movement, project support, expedition works or any other purposes that need the services of a helicopter.

Aero has a highly-trained and committed workforce across all disciplines – from engineers and pilots, to ramp and apron staff, along with those in our passenger terminal – who ensure our services run smoothly and at the highest standard.

We are in business to ensure that the experience of travellers in Nigeria, and other countries in the region, is such that can be compared to international standards. We combine all effort to raise the bar in aviation service standards in the country.

Make Your Bookings Via SMS

Do you know you can make your bookings via SMS?
Send: Aero ‘space’ (origin) ‘space’ (destination) ‘space’ (date) to the short code 32120
e.g Aero Lagos Abuja 29 Nov

You would get an instant SMS showing an itemized schedule of flights, time, fares, etc
Choose the number on the flight you want to book and send with your name to the shortcode (i.e, a second SMS)
e.g Aero 2 Henry Akande , send to 32120

You would get another SMS giving you a reference code which you can pay for at any of the banks on our webpage or using the quickteller by going to www.quickteller.com

Make Bookings On Your Blackberry Phones VIA The URL

You can book for your flyaero flights on your blackberry phones via the url.

m.flyaero.com

Avoid The Queue; Check-in ONLINE

It saves you a whole lot of time and stress if you check-in and print your boarding pass online. Then, all you have to do is simply get to the airport and go straight to the boarding gate. You are also privileged the right of choosing a seat for yourself.

However, you must note that only hand luggage is accepted when you do this.

You Can Now Book on-Hold For Flights That Are 24HRS And 48HRS Away

Our online customers can make bookings on-hold for flights which are 24hrs and 48hrs away from departure.  This service will however come at a fee.

Subscription costs for this value added service are indicated below:

1. NGN1000/USD7/GHC7 for booking on-hold for flights that are within 24hrs but up to 6 hours before departure time.

2. NGN750/5USD/5GHC for booking on-hold for flights which are 48hrs before departure; to be held on the system for a period of 24 hours.

This fee will be added to the total cost of the booking

Please note that all bookings which are not paid for will be cancelled by the system’s robot 6 hours before the flight departure for option 1 and 24hours after booking is made for option 2.

In addition, on-hold booking subscription fees are non refundable and are not part of the ticket price. It is considered spent, once book on-hold access is given and the booking is paid for.

 

Best West African Airline 2011; The Award Goes To Aero Contractors

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Aero contractors has won the award for the BEST WEST AFRICAN AIRLINE, in the category of tourism and hospitality.

The entire management and staff of Aerocontractors Nigeria would like to thank all those that voted to make this a success.

We are working very had to serve you better!

Electronic Booking/Payment Channels In The Nigerian Aviation Sector The Aero Story

Picture a scenario where aLagosresident at his home in Victoria Island on calm Saturday morning suddenly receives a call informing him that he had to be inAbuja(the administrative capital) by mid afternoon.Abujais an eight-hour drive fromLagos. The first decision you have to make is the easiest. Your logical choice for mode of transport will be air. You will then be faced with the choice of which airline to fly with. Traditionally, you would head for the airport and then scout around for the available flights that suits your time, and if you have options and you are price sensitive, you will go for the least expensive. That’s one possibility. You can also get in touch with a travel agent, though this may not be ideal for last minute purchases. Today however, options for accessing information, making bookings and payments have opened up globally.Nigeriahas also braced up to the challenge and by default today, most airlines offers a variety of options for booking and paying for a seat on a flight.

Today, the sameVictoria Islandresident can send an SMS on his mobile phone to retrieve an airline’s schedule and fares, and also make a booking on the phone as well! He/She can go on to pay for the booking on the phone and check in online. In effect, he has reduced the need for human intervention up till boarding (if travelling with hand luggage only and has no baggage to check in). There are still several options n Nigerian passenger has in his path to securing an airline seat. He can book on his PC, pay on an ATM machine and check in on his PC or phone. If he has excess baggage, he can pre-pay for this on the airline’s website. Another set of options available to him would be to call the call centre, get a booking reservation, pay at a designated bank and check in/pay for excess baggage online.

These booking/payment options are revolutionary in Sub Saharan Africa. Looking at theNigeriaaviation industry, this is even more so. In spite of her status in Africa,Nigeriais beset by very formidable infrastructural issues, especially with regards to power and telecommunications. This in effect will mean that basic telecom services will cost more than in other sub-Saharan countries, ostensibly due to the additional cost of running backup supply. Regardless, The Nigerian economy still seems to provide opportunities for innovation, though not with considerable effort.

Aero contractors Company of Nigeria Limited without doubt is a pioneer in this aspect of business endeavour, as its initiatives have been copied by other airlines in the Nigerian aviation sector. The airline arguable offers the most robust distribution and payment system when ranked with other Nigerian domestic airline service providers.

Checking for flight Schedules

 

Passengers can always check for flight schedules by visiting www.flyaero.com or calling the Call center

 

If you have no internet connection, you may also check for flight schedules by sending an SMS on any Nigerian network. Aero is the first West African airline to launch such initiative. You can send one SMS to the shortcode 32123 (on Nigerian networks) to access the schedule, times and fares. To view the schedule for the Lagos-Abuja flights for the 30^th of November, the SMS to send to 32120 will be

Aero Lagos Abuja 30 November

This returns a numbered list of flights with times and fares.

To book for the second flight on the list you need to send this text to the same code

Aero 2 Firstname Lastname

 

Booking for Flights

The most popular booking channel is also the website www.flyaero.com. Booking can also be done by SMS as illustrated earlier. The Call center is also a useful channel. Designated Kiosks also provide the convenience.

The booking process gives you a unique reservations reference which captures your booking information.

Payments

There are several payment options available. The major challenge inNigeriaonce again is infrastructure; with stable electricity supply not yet a reality. This is a formidable obstacle, making connectivity and e-payments challenging. Regardless, there are still several e-payment options available. These include debit card payment on the web (using Visa/Master Cards), payments at designated Nigerian banks (as the banking applications can connect to the reservation system), and payments on ATM machines, Kiosks and lately mobile money.

InNigeria, Aero has remained the most innovative of the pack in terms of product distribution. Part of the core of the business model is empowering the passenger to be able to do everything form booking to payment to check-in themselves. The objective is making the booking and payment process so easy that aero will be the most sensible rational option in the Nigerian airline industry.

The booking and payment process is of course only one aspect of the value chain. Without doubt though, it is a key factor in deciding which airline to fly, as our Victoria Island Lagos resident will confirm to you.

Segun Medubi oversees the commercial department at Aero Contractors Nigeria Limited

The Challenges of being a female pilot

Nigeria’s Aviation industry is still a male dominated world. Though over the past few decades, the female presence in the airline industry has been on the increase, by comparison, women still have a paltry presence. According to data compiled by Women in Aviation international (www.wai.com) women represent 6% of the pilot population.

In Nigeria this is no exception.

Aero Contractors (www.flyaero.com) prides itself in its contribution to the development of aviation expertise inNigeria as a whole, but in particular in the support of female involvement. Aero has 101 pilots (as at October 29 2011) in total and 13 of them are female. This is a percentage of just under 13, which is more than double the industry average.

In 2009, Aero, a Nigerian airline, became the first airline inAfricato operate a flight with an all female cockpit and cabin crew.

What are the challenges that cause barriers to entry into aviation (particularly the cockpit) for women inNigeria? This is an Aeros female pilot’s account.

Several factors determine what kind of challenges a female pilot would have. One of the main ones would be what part of the world she is flying, mindset of the populace or tradition. In the developed world, a female captain probably wouldn’t attract too much attention if passengers sighted her while boarding an aircraft. But in Africa, orNigeriaspecifically where I fly, she would definitely get a second look, and yes, believe it or not a consideration of returning to the departure hall and getting on a different flight ostensibly owing to the lack of confidence of having a woman in command.

Don’t get me wrong, over the years; I believe it has become more acceptable to see women on the flight deck. A few ‘more traditional thinking’ men may still have reservations about being at the mercy of a ‘mere’ woman while being flown in this very sophisticated equipment over several hundreds of miles. Some folks console themselves by believing she is just a ‘co-pilot’ and doesn’t really fly the plane. (She couldn’t possibly have an idea how to, not with all those buttons and switches).

Well, in all fairness, I have received several encouraging and pleasant remarks from Nigerian passengers, mostly women though!

Another factor that would probably cause any challenges to a female pilot in the Nigerian airline industry has to do with physiological issues which affect every female, regardless of geographical location. If you’re single, unlike men, there’s always the ‘biological clock’ factor and the conflict between your career and settling down. The social pressure is massive. In our society, the woman is reminded that it is hard enough locating your ‘soul mate’ let alone worrying if he’ll be supportive of your profession. If you’re married, sooner or later, you get pregnant and you can’t fly for too long after that sometimes for about a whole year. I mean, there’s nothing as joyful as having a baby! But it does slow down your career quite significantly.

Personally speaking, I wouldn’t say the challenges outweigh the pros of me being female pilot. I’m married to a pilot and this works perfectly for me. They say pilots talk about flying a lot. It’s true, it never gets boring, no two days are really the same and usually I can’t wait to get home and tell him about some weird escapade and vice versa ( be at peace, pilots don’t take passengers up and hunt escapades). I also have a 3 year old and another on the way, which means I’ll have to stop flying soon.

Every job has its challenges to women as well as to men I guess, but trust me, there’s very few jobs I’d swap mine for.

Violet Enahoro, is a female pilot with Aero Contractors company of Nigeria Limited (www.flyaero.com)

Passenger Friendly Questionnaire

Frequency of Travel