Bellview Airlines
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Founded | 1992 | ||||||
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Ceased operations | 2009 | ||||||
Hubs | Murtala Mohammed International Airport | ||||||
Focus cities | Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Port Harcourt International Airport | ||||||
Frequent-flyer program | Premium Club | ||||||
Fleet size | 13 | ||||||
Parent company | Bellview Airlines Nig. Ltd. | ||||||
Headquarters | Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria | ||||||
Key people | Tunde Yusuf (Chairman), Kayode Odukoya (CEO) | ||||||
Website | http://web.archive.org/*/http://www.flybellviewair.com/ |
Bellview Airlines was an airline headquartered at Bellview Plaza in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria.[1] Founded in 1992 and having had 308 employees[when?],[2] it operated scheduled passenger flights within Africa as well as to London out of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.[2] The airline was shut down in 2009.[3]
History
In 1992, Bellview Airlines emerged from Bellview Travels Limited, a Lagos-based travel agency, originally concentrating on offering executive charter services using a single Yakovlev Yak-40 aircraft. In 1993 scheduled domestic passenger services commenced with a leased Douglas DC-9-30. In order to expand further, a subsidiary in Sierra Leone was founded in 1995, which later merged back into its parent company.
The Government of Nigeria set a deadline of April 30, 2007, for all airlines operating in the country to re-capitalise to avoid being grounded, in an effort to ensure better services and safety. Bellview Airlines satisfied the criteria of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and was subsequently re-registered for operation.[citation needed]
In October 2009 Bellview Airlines suspended all operations following the suspension of its London Heathrow services[why?].
2014
In early March 2014, it was reported that Bellview Airlines will begain operations again with a joint venture with British Airways. New aircraft will be leased starting in mid-July from Iberia Airlines. Bellview Airlines will expand its service to Asia with 3 Boeing 777-200ER. The leased aircraft will part of a new expanded operation for British Airways. The other aircraft that Bellview Airlines owns is in storage and which is selling and currently on the market. Bellview Airlines has 12 orders for Airbus A320. New hubs will be announced in July 2014.
Destinations
At July 2009, Bellview Airlines offered scheduled flights to the following destinations:[citation needed]
Africa
- Cameroon
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Liberia
- Nigeria
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- South Africa
Europe
Incidents and accidents
- On October 22, 2005, Bellview Airlines Flight 210, a Boeing 737-200 aircraft with 117 people on board, crashed shortly after taking off from Murtala Mohammed International Airport en route to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, killing all 117 people on board. Bellview grounded all flights on the next day, but resumed operation again on October 24.[4]
- On December 19, 2005, a Boeing 737 operating a Bellview Airlines flight between Lagos and Freetown made an emergency landing at Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana due to hydraulical problems. On the following day, Nigerian authorities ordered all Bellview flights to be grounded and suspended the airline's license until December 22.[5]
Fleet
Over the years, Bellview Airlines operated the following aircraft types:[6]
- 2 Airbus A300-600 (between 1997 and 2000)
- 5 Boeing 737-200 (since 2001)
- 5 Boeing 737-300 (since 2003)
- 3 Boeing 767-200ER (since 2005, for flights to London)
See also
References
- ^ "Contacts." Bellview Airlines. 21 April 2008. Retrieved on 27 November 2010. "CORPORATE HEAD OFFICE Bellview Plaza 66b, Opebi Road, Ikeja P.M.B 21766, Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria"
- ^ a b "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-03-27. p. 85.
- ^ Bellview Airlines at airlineupdate.com
- ^ [1]Lagos crash 2005
- ^ Emergency landing
- ^ Bellview Airlines historic fleet at airfleets.net
External links
- Bellview Airlines (Archive)