August 01, 2006

VIRGIN NIGERIA COMMENCES ABUJA SHUTTLE SERVICE

Lagos, 01 August 2006: Nigeria:Virgin Nigeria Airways Limited, the country’s private sector flag carrier announces the commencement of Abuja shuttle service and an early morning flight from Abuja to Lagos to meet the challenges of passengers’ demands of her services.

Announcing the commencement in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Nigeria Airways Limited, Mr. Conrad Clifford said: "the introduction of the Abuja shuttle service means that, at an interval of two hours throughout the day an aircraft will take off either from Lagos or Abuja and land in either terminals".

"With the commencement of the Abuja shuttle service, an aircraft will be deployed permanently to stay over in Abuja as the airline has also introduced an early morning flight from Abuja to Lagos", Conrad further said, noting that the airline just took delivery of another Boeing 737-300 series aircraft to boost its domestic and regional services.

The introduction of the Abuja shuttle service is coming at a time that passengers need a reliable and a convenient means of transportation especially on the Lagos – Abuja route.

Virgin Nigeria has consistently led in introducing series of innovative packages to improve passengers’ comfort and also competitive fares to reward her customers.

Recently, Virgin Nigeria introduced online payment in partnership with UBA which allows the convenience of payment with an Interswitch debit card, once a passenger makes his booking from the comfort of his home.

The innovation also includes the fast track immigration service for business travellers on the London route, among other packages such as pay-at-bank option; e-ticketing, drive-thru-check-in for passengers travelling in business class in both London and Johannesburg.

The airline will be taking delivery of more aircraft before the end of the year to increase her fleet size while plans are also afoot to launch more domestic routes in different regions of the country and more regional routes to further boost trade and tourism.

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.