The Governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade, has taken delivery of the second Boeing 737 aircraft at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos for the state’s commercial airline, Cally Air.
According to a statement by the governor’s Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Christian Ita, the arrival of the aircraft comes barely three weeks after the first one was received on April 6.
“On ground to receive the second aircraft at Arik Air hangar in Lagos were the trio of the state Commissioner for Finance, Asuquo Ekpeyong Jr., Director-General of Due Process, Alphonsus Ogar, Director-General, Bureau of Public Private Partnership, Udiba Udiba.
“The two Boeing 737 aircraft have a carrying capacity of 142 and 144 passengers respectively,” Ita said.
He added that, Ayade, while announcing the floating of Cally Air early this year, decried the prohibitive air transport cost in the country, particularly the Lagos-Calabar and Calabar-Abuja routes, querying why ‘a passenger would pay over N70,000 to fly to Calabar? The route to Calabar either from Lagos or Abuja is the most expensive in Nigeria’.
The governor, Ita said, created the Ministry of Aviation to bring into realisation the birth of Cally Airline.
