Ftom left: Mrs Toyin Olajide, Chief Operating Officer; Dr Allen Onyema, Chairman and Mrs Ejiro Eghagha, Chief of Finance and Administration, all of Air Peace during a press conferenceat Air Peace Headquarters, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos on Wednesday
By Sade Williams
The United Kingdom government, through the Airports Coordination Limited,, has allocated slot to Air peace at Heathrow airport in London.
Chairman of the airline, Dr. Allen Onyema disclosed this during a press conference at the airline’s headquarters in Lagos on Wednesday.
He disclosed that the airline will from October 26, operate three flights, weekly into Heathrow from Abuja and four times a week into Gatwick from Abuja.
However, Lagos- Gatwick remains seven times a week.
Onyema attributed the feat to the resilience of the airline and its safety records, adding that European countries would not allow commercial flights into their airspace if the safety record of the airline is questionable.
After six years, Air Peace, reactivated the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) Nigeria signed with the United Kingdom by launching a direct flight to London. It commenced a direct Lagos-London flight to London Gatwick on March 30, 2024, amidst fanfare.
The Federal government had expressed concerns that their airlines are not being granted access to major international airports in other countries, while foreign airlines have access to Nigeria’s key airports. Specifically, they had sought Heathrow slots for Air Peace, mirroring the access that British Airways has to Nigerian airports.
Heathrow Airport slots are highly sought-after and highly controlled due to the airport’s capacity constraints and high demand .Airlines must acquire slots, which grant them the right to operate a specific flight at a particular time, either through initial allocation or by purchasing them on the secondary market. The process is managed by Airport Coordination Limited (ACL), an independent organisation.
On Wednesday, Onyema lauded the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo for his role in securing the coveted slot in Heathrow.
“I want to want to tell you that on the 26th of October, we will start our Abuja London Heathrow flights. I want to announce to you that the British authorities have granted Air Peace Heathrow, this a testament of their belief in what we are doing. I would like to thank the British authorities for doing that. I would like to thank the President for all their efforts to showcase Nigeria to the world. This is also a testament to our resilience “, he said.
Onyema, who disclosed that the airline currently has 49 aircraft, 36 on outright purchase and four on wet lease, said the airline will by September, launch operations into the Caribbean nations as well as China and India.
“We are connecting Nigerians in the Diaspora, we started this operations some months ago, we flew to St. Kitts, we also transported over 200 passengers to Jamaica, we have increased our B777 to four because our China operations will soon start. We are already discussing acquisition of Wide-bodied aircraft based on wet lease arrangement.”
Speaking on maintenance and financial integrity of the airline, Onyema described its fleet maintenance as top notch, revealing that iits partnership with Israeli Aerospace Service and OEM has also earned it international accolades. He added that Air peace financial integrity has grown the confidence of other financial institutions in investment in aviation.
“The banking industry confidence has grown due to our financial integrity. Fidelity bank celebrated us recently, our financial integrity is the reason for our expansion, every Nigerian banks now wants to partner with us because we see borrowed money as other people’s money, they are depositors’ money, so we are prudent with it, banks don’t look over their shoulders when they are dealing with us”, he added.
