Nigeria Airways 747-200 | “West African Hopper”

“Nwanyị Naijiria”


SE-DFZ by John Peter Cook

Who is Nigeria Airways?

Nigeria Airways was an airline based in Abuja, Nigeria. Founded after the dissolution of the West African Airways Corp. at 1958, the company was one of the best African airlines back in their golden ages. The government had a majority stake in the company, basically making it the flag carrier of Nigeria from 51% until in 1971 where they boosted it to full ownership. They operated a very wide variety of old planes from the Airbus A300 → Vickers Viscount. Plagued by mismanagement, corruption, and overstaffing , at the time of closure the airline (2003) had debts totalling US$528 million. In short, they liquidated all their assets and shut.

Nigeria Airways’ 13 747-200s

Nigeria Airways, according to planespotters.net, had a total of 13 747-200 aircraft at their tally. But they only purchased (1) from Boeing, only one, the rest of them were leased by the following charters:

  • Air Kabo
  • Corsair
  • Air Atlanta Icelandic
  • ILFC

These 747s were used for Africa - Europe flights, trans-Atlantic/Africa flights and even Hajj pilgrimages from Lagos such as

  • New York JFK
  • Roma Fumiciano
  • Jeddah
  • London
  • Johannesburg
  • Frankfurt
  • Nairobi

Livery Overview:

The livery shows an old albino white base with a green outline of the cheatline. The company logo is smacked into the tail of the aircraft and then the airline name “NIGERIA AIRWAYS” in Metronic Pro Wide Extensa Ultra Font ontop of the cheatline.

Personally, I’d like this livery to be in IF, we all love a bit of retro and vintage raw aviation memorabilia and 747 retro liveries are the best way to experience that feeling once more. It also gives a glimpse of Africa in the 80’s, what might say, aviation’s golden years in Nigeria. And honestly, the livery itself, it’s a banger!

Looks very nice,but I’m out of votes

sigh…
Me too :(

1 Like

Wish I could vote but I’m out, as usual.

0 votes, off to a good start