News

VivaJets, the Nigerian business aviation company that served as the official Private Aviation Partner at African Energy Week (AEW) 2025, will return to the event as a Gold Sponsor at AEW 2026, taking place from October 12-16 in Cape Town. The upgrade reflects a year of rapid growth for the company, which has expanded its fleet, secured new international financing and opened its first hub outside Nigeria.

VivaJets operates under the parent company Falcon Aerospace Limited and provides aircraft charter, management and brokerage services from its base in Nigeria. Since beginning operations in 2022, the company has logged more than 2,000 flight hours serving corporate, government and energy-sector clients across domestic and international routes. It holds an Air Operator's Certificate from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, secured in March 2025, and currently operates a fleet of four aircraft including two Bombardier Challenger 604s, a Hawker 850XP and a Hawker 900XP. CEO Erika Achum has said the fleet will grow further by the third quarter of 2026.

The financing to support that growth has come quickly. In October 2025, VivaJets secured a $10 million credit facility from London-based TLG Capital, structured alongside Nigeria's Wema Bank, in what both parties described as the first internationally structured aviation financing for a Nigerian air operator. In April 2026, the company raised a further $15 million and announced plans to open an operational hub in Abidjan, extending its reach into francophone West Africa and positioning itself closer to energy markets in Ivory Coast, Senegal and the wider MSGBC basin.

Falcon Aerospace has also launched a joint venture, OrientJets, in partnership with Flybird Aircraft Management Services, based in Aruba, to serve international routes and strengthen the group's presence beyond the continent.

The expansion is built around a thesis that private aviation in Africa is not a luxury service but an operational necessity, particularly for the energy sector. Oil and gas operations depend on moving personnel and equipment to remote field locations on short notice, investor delegations need reliable access to markets where commercial routes are limited or indirect and conference travel between African capitals often requires multiple connections on commercial airlines. According to industry data, roughly 80% of VivaJets' charter demand comes from large corporate and government clients, with energy among the largest segments. At AEW 2025, VivaJets operated direct charter flights to Cape Town for delegates, putting the thesis into practice.

“Aviation is infrastructure for African energy, and VivaJets has shown how quickly a homegrown company can build the kind of connectivity that the sector needs,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “When investors and operators can move across borders without friction, deals close faster and projects move forward.”

VivaJets has also become a vocal advocate for the regulatory reform needed to make that connectivity easier. The company has called for the removal of restrictive visa regimes for aircrews and the harmonization of aviation rules across the continent, aligning with the African Union's Single African Air Transport Market initiative, which aims to liberalize Africa's airspace and lower the cost of intra-African travel.

The company's growth from a single-aircraft startup in 2022 to a licensed, internationally financed aviation business with expanding routes across the continent has made it one of the more visible examples of African entrepreneurship in a sector long dominated by foreign operators. At AEW 2025, Achum spoke on the role of SMEs and startups in Africa's energy economy, a theme the company is expected to carry forward at this year's event.