…airline rolls out plans for operations
Posted by Sade Williams
Barr. Allen Onyema, Chairman, Air Peace Ltd, has said that it will do everything in its powers to launder Nigeria’s image through its international operations.
He said this at a press conference on Friday in Lagos, where he also rolled out plans for the operations.
According to him, an end has come to when Nigerian airlines are castigated for having short life span, adding that Air Peace has come stay and ready to compete with any international airline.
He said the company’s prudence and financial integrity has attracted local and international financiers to it in recent times, adding that government now needs to create an enabling environment for operations.
“The era of demonising Nigerian airlines is over, I want to tell you today that Air Peace is ready to succeed, currently, most financial institutions ant to work with us, if the banks that have written out Nigerian airlines are now coming back, then they have seen something better but we need government support to move forward. We are not asking for money from government because it is the duty of banks to lend us money for business
“Nigerian banks are ready to invest in us, financial institutions from across the world are ready to work with us, so why won’t Nigeria embrace its own, this government has challenged us to rise to the occasion and fill the gap of a national carrier by suspending the Nigeria Air project, the rest is left for domestic airlines to rise to the occasion.
“We at Air Peace has established integrity with banks, we borrowed money when we were floating the airline, we paid back our loans, we have not been found wanting for one day and that is why other banks like UBA, have joined Fidelity to invest in us, we will never launder money but we are ready to launder Nigeria’s image using Air Peace, we will make this country proud, Air Peace will fill those gaps in air travel, we want to present Nigeria proudly, we are ready to compete with the best airline in the world as long as government also provide necessary infrastructure”, he added.
He disclosed that the 10 B737 aircraft it purchased would be deployed to Lagos-Paris; Lagos-Frankfurt; Lagos-Amsterdam; Lagos-Milan; Abuja-Jeddah; Kano-Dubai and Enugu-London, adding that the B777 would be used on London, United States, China and Johannesburg.
Air Peace will commence Dubai and Sharjah routes by November.
According to him, the airline has trained over 40 pilots since in four years, adding that it does not discriminate in terms of training and employment.