Allen Onyeama, Chairman of Nigerian indigenous carrier, Air Peace, says there are concerted efforts by foreign carriers operating the Nigeria-United Kingdom (UK) route, to frustrate his airline company out of business.
In an interview on Channels Television, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said Air Peace was being ‘deliberately frustrated’ by some big players in the aviation industry since it began flying to the United Kingdom.
He disclosed that these carriers, which engaged in price gouging before Air Peace stepped into the fray, were now deliberately charging abysmally low and unrealistic airfares on the route as part of an elaborate plot to push Air Peace out of international operations.
According to him, there is an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines who saw Nigeria as a “cashcow.”
These airlines, he said, are perpetrating such with the help of their government.
Citing groundhandling and space allocation difficulties at Gatwick Airport in the last couple of days, he said: “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. We are being deliberately frustrated in all ways.
“It’s a very devilish conspiracy. 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 cashcow for everybody.”
The aviation mogul said Nigerians would pay insanely high airfares if the foreign airlines succeeded in taking out Air peace.
“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.
“What is happening is scary. On the inaugural flight out of London 24 hours they moved us to another checking area. The place they gave us, things were not working. When you are checking people you need to manually carry the load to go 50 metres and drop it. This was just to delay. No other airline faced that. We were denied a slot. Festus Keyamo had to travel to London with us to warn them. He told them if they continue the foolish act, the Nigerian government would retaliate.
“The government of Nigeria is behind Air Peace but the government has to do more now that there is evidence that unofficial statements are taking this airline,” he said.
The airline boss invite 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.
“I invite other Nigerian airlines to join the fray, let them come, let all of us do international operations. Yes, international aeropolitics is very dirty but somebody must pay the price,” he added.
Onyeama expressed appreciation to President Bola Tinubu and Minister Keyamo for being “solidly behind” Air Peace even as the airline navigates the politics side of operating to London.
Recall on March 30, 2024, Air Peace commenced direct flight operations from Lagos to Gatwick Airport in London.
