•Dignitaries at the inauguration of Air Peace London Route
The Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Air Peace Airlines, Allen Onyema, has given insight into how what he termed as dirty aero politics, and internal and external conspiracies combined to stymie Air Peace’s efforts at flying London Route before now.
Onyema said for nearly seven years, his country; Nigeria, denied the airline’s application for international flight through ‘cat and mouse game’ after it had gotten designation to fly European routes, including United Kingdom.
However, on Saturday, March 30, the airline launched its Lagos-London flight services.
The airline announced the breakthrough on its X page.
“London service has commenced and we’re delighted to have achieved yet another feat in our drive to continually provide peaceful connectivity across cities.
“A big thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this launch,” it posted.
And reacting to the milestone, Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development; and Doris Uzoka-Anita, minister of industry, trade and investment, who were present at the airline’s inaugural flight to London, hailed the development.
Speaking at the event, Keyamo said the commencement of direct Lagos-London flight by Air Peace would ease the pressure on the Nigerian local currency naira, as it would reduce the demand for foreign exchange (FX) by Nigerians and foreign airlines.
The minister assured that the federal government would continue to protect the airline and other Nigerian carriers that may want to operate international services.
But speaking on Monday while fielding questions on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme, Onyema recalled that it took the nation’s leading airline seven years to get the designation to fly into London.
He said ‘his own country’ denied Air Peace and its application for a Foreign Technical Country Operators (FTCO) permit, which could have allowed the airline to fly passengers into any European country.
“You(we) suffer what I call both internal and external conspiracies. It took us seven years. We got the designation, I think about six and a half years ago to go into London. Since then, it has been a Cat-and-Mouse game.
“We actually procured our three 777s because of this route, not for any other route,… However, we were not allowed to go.
“Whether you like it or not, there is what is called international aero politics which is very dirty. We applied for the TCO. TCO means Technical Country Operators permit, you must get that one before you start going into any European country, UK inclusive. And the TCO organization from Europe wrote our Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority- Do you know Air Peace? Do you know about their designation? And we were denied. My own country denied us, so they threw it back.
“We went back to the NCAA, they said, oh, we didn’t tell them. Who designated us, the Federal Ministry of Aviation, whose duty it was and still is to do that. We said okay, we’re ready. They refused, they said until they allow us to apply. So, we got a designation from the Federal government, and the NCAA, under the same Federal Government, was telling us that we should not make any application towards going into the UK,” he said.
Onyema believed Nigerian airlines need all the necessary support they could get from the Federal Government.
