Nigerian Trip and Experience

Real World Aviation
#1

So about two weeks ago my family had to go to Nigeria for a burial. It was very unexpected but got some nice pictures. The route we took was LAX-ORD-FRA-ABV-PHC (Lufthansa and Air France do a stopover at Abuja before going to Port Harcourt)

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A Lufthansa A320 parked at the gate after we arrived. It says “First to Fly the Neo” so I wonder if it’s an A320NEO.
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Arrived in Abuja and the Arik Air 737 is preparing to taxi out.
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Same with the Arik Air CRJ-900 and Dana Air MD-80
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Then the Air France A330 that will leave to Port Harcourt before us.
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We arrive at port and on an open tarmac so the planes can be “snapped” in all their glory. Our A330
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Air France’s A330
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And Dana Air’s MD-80

Now Port Harcourt’s International arrival building is a tent.
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Now in Nigeria buildings like hospitals, airports, hotels, and other important buildings are supposed to have power supplied to them during business time and maybe cut it off after closing. But they took power when they needed to do passport checks so for a certain time while we were their they did it manually. Now they weren’t very organized as they had multiple lines for different things. And we kept switching. The baggage claim was the baggage cars taking the bags from the plane to an area inside the tent for baggage. Now lastly the economy their isn’t the best. We had about 8 to 9 bags. Nigerians saw us and bunch of them came to help. Now dun get me wrong they are very nice but the reason most helped was for money. Even the custom ladies wanted to search every bag but we had to give them some money so they won’t. In the picture on the other side of the wall is the construction of a new building. It was halted due to politics and economics and also a corrupt Gov. taking money and not using it for infrastructure.

So to end this long topic I would like to say that traveling to Nigeria is awesome. I went their 5 time (this being my 5th) and I loved it. Aviation wise Nigeria should spend a little bit more money on their flag carrier and international airports to make them nice. Maybe fix the economy so more airlines come their as this topic talks about what happened last year with United and other Airlines.

(p.s Sorry for camera quality my family has no money to waste on camera buying. Also for the long topic and paragraph.)
(p.s.s I just read a topic and Port Harcourt is rated number 1 worst airport. Here’s the article

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What Is Your Worst Experience at an Airport?
#2

Nice shots! Nigeria seems like an interesting place!

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#3

Yes, very interesting indeed!

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#4

Nice trip although sorry for the circumstances. Anyway, the Nigerian government should do something about Port Harcourt.

I really enjoyed those shots.

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#5

This is one of the places im going to fly to in Global!! Nice pics and Nigeria does seem very interesting

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#6

It has the sharklets in lieu of the wingtip fences and the larger engines/lower ground clearance, so I believe so.

[I’m no expert spotter though, so I remain open to someone pointing out something I’ve missed.]

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#7

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

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#8

Dana Air photo bomb!!! But in all seriousness, great photos and may he/she rest in peace

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#9

it is a NEO :) You are correct although lots of CEO’s also have sharklets

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#10

First of all, great photos - really nice angles you’ve got them from - seems like an interesting journey you did…

But I can’t be the only one that’s taken aback by your picture of Port Harcourt airport - I mean, I know Nigeria and a few other parts of Africa are troubled by their respective governments, but that is shocking - health and safety units in both the UK and US would have something to say about that!

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#11

Thanks, I figured some had been retrofitted with the sharklets, but I presume the engines remain the same, or those swapped out occasionally as well?

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#12

Yea they retrofit the sharklets but they dont do anything to the engines. I think the NEO’s are built from scratch

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#13

That planes reg# should be D-AINA which is the first A320N.

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#14

A tent for the international terminal “building” 😂. That is the first time I’ve ever heard a tent as a terminal building…

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#15

@Bulba… MaxSez: Appears things never change. Passed thru Harcourt in the mid 80’s in a KC-130 out of Kenya, Kenyatta bound for Andrews (DC). Saw the rain clouds in the background and could feel the humidity. Note “baksheesh”(pay off) is still the name of the game on the dark continent. (As I recall they didn’t even have a tent for a terminal at the “international” port just some nesson huts for customs and services in my day). Enjoyed your trip report, great read, pics and backstory. Thanks for the memory.

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#16

They are referring to Lufthansa being the first airline to operate the A320NEO

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#17

Am glad you enjoyed your trip to Nigeria. PH airport is really in need of an upgrade. Other international airport like the one in my town at Enugu is much better. I see these airplane all the time (especially 787s) land at Enugu all the time. I always track these 330s fly over head in route to Abuja.

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#18

Just read my post again… my bad. That’s what I actually meant.

#19

Port Harcort has always been an eye sore…Civil Aviation really need to get their act together

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#20

They do so the airport can be a little more decent than how it is now.