Thursday, 16 March 2006:

VIRGIN NIGERIA LAUNCHES DAKAR ROUTE

LAGOS, Nigeria, March 16: Virgin Nigeria, the country's fully private sector flag carrier, today launched its maiden flight operation to Dakar, Senegal, in continuation of its regional routes network roll out.

Head, Public Affairs of Virgin Nigeria, Mr. Larry Agose, announced this in Lagos, saying: "The inaugural flight to Dakar today signals the further commencement of Virgin Nigeria's service to francophone West Africa."

He explained that Virgin Nigeria will operate thrice weekly flights from the International Terminal of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos to Dakar Yoff International Airport on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, with return to Lagos on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

"Our service to Dakar is in line with the Virgin Nigeria belief in the Hands-Across-Africa initiative, especially in terms of making trans-border business easier," Agose said, adding, "We strongly believe that opening this route will help to further strengthen cultural and economic ties between Nigeria and francophone West Africa, of which Senegal is a very important part.

Service to Dakar will be operated by our modern Boeing 737 aircraft in a two-class configuration with 16 Business and 100 Economy Class seats.

"The outbound flight, VK 843, will depart Lagos at 21.00 and arrive Dakar at 23.50 while the Lagos-bound flight, VK 842, will depart Dakar at 00.50 and arrive Murtala Mohammed International Airport at 05.40," Agose said. This means passengers can benefit not only from direct flights to Lagos, but onwards to other Nigerian destinations, such as Abuja, Port Harcourt and further beyond.

He said that Virgin Nigeria will offer additional 20kg baggage allowance as a promotional offer to all passengers. "The additional 20kg baggage allowance means that our passengers have an effective 40kg and therefore can carry more," Agose said.

The launch of the Lagos – Dakar route brings to three, the number of regional routes operated by Virgin Nigeria in Africa, having launched to Accra, Ghana on July 20 and Douala, Cameroon on October 25, 2005. The airline commenced thrice weekly international long haul operation to London on June 28, 2005 but will launch daily service to London Gatwick Airport with effect from April 27. Also, the airline commenced operations to Johannesburg, South Africa on November 24, 2005.

Similarly, Virgin Nigeria will commence a thrice-weekly operation from Lagos to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) from May 2.

Virgin Nigeria's network roll out plan is predicated on service standards which the airline had clearly highlighted at the launch of flight operations in June 2005. At the time, the management of Virgin Nigeria had pledged to remain firmly focused on taking its business one careful step at a time as well as on operating to standards that allow Nigerian aviation to hold its head up high around the world.

Agose said: "For Virgin Nigeria to rapidly attain its goal of being a world class airline operating out of Nigeria, we will increase our workforce to about 1,300 by the end of 2006 and our fleet size from the current four to 11 by February 2007," stressing, "by 2010, we believe that we would have grown our fleet size to 40 aircraft with employee strength of 6,000."

About Virgin Nigeria:
Virgin Nigeria is the registered, fully private sector flag carrier of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, owned 51% by Nigerian Institutional shareholders and 49% by Virgin Atlantic.

The airline operates the following

intercontinental services:
Lagos to London: Daily
Johannesburg: Three times a week
Dubai: Three times a week

Regional services:
Accra: Daily
Douala: Two times a week
Dakar: Two times a week

Domestic services:
Lagos - Abuja: Six times daily
***Lagos - Port Harcourt: Four times daily now temporarily cancelled
***Abuja - Port Harcourt: Once daily now temporarily cancelled
Lagos - Kano: Five times a week
Abuja - Kano: Five times a week

For reservations, call (01) 460 0505; (01) 271 1111; (09) 461 0505; (084) 460505

For all press enquiries, please contact: corporatecommunications@virginnigeria.com

For media information in Nigeria only, please contact Corporate Communications, 3rd floor, Ark towers, Plot 17 Ligali Ayorinde Street, VI, or corpcomm@virginnigeria.com; 234 -1 – 2711144

For media information in the UK please contact the Virgin Atlantic Press Office on 01293 747 373.