Foreign airlines conspiring to edge Air Peace out of Lagos-London route – Onyema

Chairman of Air Peace, Mr Allen Onyema, says foreign carriers operating the Nigeria-UK route are conspiring to send Air Peace out of the international operations.
He said since Air Peace commenced flight operations to London on March 30, 2024 by charging normal airfares, the foreign airlines had been scheming to edge it out of business.
Onyema made the revelation on Tuesday while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
He alleged that there is an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines to use lower pricing to eject Air Peace from the Nigeria-London route.

“If they take out Air Peace prematurely, this country will pay dearly for it, 10 times over, billions will be lost, there will be another heavy strain on the naira,” he said.

“It’s a very devilish conspiracy,” said a dissatisfied Onyema.

“All of a sudden, (foreign) airlines are underpricing, below the cost, it’s not up to one month, an airline was advertising $100, another one $305, $350.

“Fill up the entire aircraft and carry people on the wings, it’s not even enough to buy your fuel. So, why are they doing that? Their governments are supporting them because Nigeria has been a cash cow for everybody.

“Their governments are supporting them to do this and take Air Peace out. The idea is to take Air Peace out and the moment they succeed in taking Air Peace out, Nigerians will pay 20 times over again,” he said.

Onyema asked other Nigerian airlines to join the Nigeria-UK route to break the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by foreign carriers operating into the four major gateway airports of Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.

Emirates set to resume Dubai-Nigeria flights, just received its notice – Minister

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has announced that Emirates Airlines is prepared to resume flight operations to Nigeria.

He said the notice to resume flights on the route came through a letter by the airline sent to him.

Keyamo spoke during an interview on Arise television on Monday.

Emirates suspended flight operations to Nigeria in November 2022 over its inability to repatriate its revenue from the country.

The Federal Government in September 2023 said the airline would resume services in Nigeria after a meeting between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mohamed bin Zayed, President of the United Arab Emirates.

But since that first announcement, Emirates is yet to resume flights operations.

But speaking on the issue during the interview, Keyamo said the first announcement over the proposed resolution between the UAE and Nigeria was hastily done and dismissed claims that it was fake news.

The minister said he had received a letter from the airline confirming that all the issues had been resolved and was ready to resume flights.

“Emirates flight resumption is almost happening. I just received a letter from Emirates. The letter is on my phone now.

“They have gone through all the gamut and they are ready to come back. They will announce the date because to restart a route, they have to get an aircraft for that route.

“I am announcing to Nigerians for the first time that I just received a letter from Emirates now. The letter is with me. I have a hard copy thanking you for all the efforts we made.

“Mr. President was the showman here. He was the one who pushed for it. He made my job easy because he went there, and had a diplomatic shuttle to resolve all the issues. That was why I said the last announcement was hasty and not fake news.

“They will announce the date for their next flight. We have received a letter confirming that all the issues have been resolved and prepared to start coming back. It may be before June.”