Nigeria's Arik Air has received the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Third Country Operator (TCO) authorization, which allows the airline to operate to any European country.

The airline made the announcement in a statement by its Communications Manager, Mr Ola Adebanji, on Wednesday last week in Lagos.

”An airline is given the authorization after meeting stringent safety and security standards.

The TCO is obtained from EASA after the agency has scrutinized the airline’s manuals and after the airline has scaled its regulations, which may include an interview.

Only very few airlines have the authorization in Africa and Arik Air is the only airline that has TCO in West Africa.

This is a great achievement for Arik Air because it is a confirmation of the airline’s high operational standard and safety by such a renowned agency. With the TCO authorization, Arik can overfly to any EU member state." the statement said.

Out of over 700 Non-EU airlines who applied for this certification in 2014, Arik Air is among the 590 airlines that were successful in the stringent certification process before the deadline of 26th of November, 2016.

Arik Air is also the only operator in Nigeria to get this Authorization which is a requirement for all non-European airline operators to fly into European Union (EU) countries.