Nigeria’s leading carrier, Air Peace, set a new record at the weekend with the
arrival of its newly acquired Boeing B777-200 aircraft, thus becoming the first
and only Nigerian airline to procure and register the brand of the airliner in
the country.
The airline said in a statement signed by its
spokesman, Chris Iwarrah, that the development is coming weeks after the
airline took delivery of two Embraer 145 aircraft on January 31 and February 9
respectively and made history with the setting up a subsidiary, Air Peace
Hopper, to organise its short-haul operations in line with its
no-city-left-behind project.
The 274-capacity aircraft, which touched down at
the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos at about 3.45 p.m. last
Friday, is the first of two Boeing 777 airliners Air Peace recently acquired in
preparation for its Dubai, Sharjah, London, Guangzhou-China, Houston, Mumbai
and Johannesburg services.
The airline said it is finalising talks to add two
more B777 aircraft to its fleet soon.
The airline said indigenous crew has been trained
to operate the aircraft with registration number 5N-BVE.
The aircraft was flown in by the Chief Pilot of the
airline, Capt. Victor Egonu, and Capt. Simon Donoghue, and it landed to a
rousing welcome by an excited team from Air Peace led by Onyema and
enthusiastic crowd of top aviation personnel as well as security operatives.
Speaking on the arrival of the aircraft, Onyema
assured Nigerians that Air Peace, which launched its Banjul, Freetown and Dakar
services on February 19, would soon start flights to Dubai, Sharjah,
Guangzhou-China, London, Houston, Mumbai and South Africa.
"Air Peace is ready to begin operations on
these routes as soon as we get the cooperation of our aviation agencies, our
home governments and the outside governments of the countries planned
destinations. As soon as we get their cooperation, we will make it happen,
“Onyema said.
He said the feats Air Peace had recorded in just
three years of its flight operations are a proof that Nigerian airlines could
compete with and even outperform the legacy of other airlines if there were a
level-playing field.
"This is the first time a Nigerian carrier is
acquiring a B777. What we have had in the past were through leases which were
not favourable to the airline operators. So, I don't believe that Nigerian
airlines cannot compete favourably with others. What we have been lacking is the
necessary support.
"Within the last three years, we have been
able to increase our fleet size to 24 aircraft. That is rapid growth and we are
still growing stronger," he said.
Onyema dismissed insinuations that Nigerian
airlines were not safe, stressing that Air Peace spent up to $2.5 million
annually in maintaining a single aircraft on its fleet.
"So, in terms of safety, we can assure our
guests of the very best because even our technical partner is a firm from the
United Kingdom. Air Peace cannot be said to be weak or indebted, and if there
are airlines that are going through that, they should come out and name them
instead of generalising them," he added
The Air Peace boss said he remained opposed to the
Single African Air Transportation Market (SAATM) initiative, insisting that
Nigeria had little or nothing to gain from it at present, and noted that most
African airlines that would take advantage of the SAATM window to operate in
the country lacked attractive destinations Nigerian airlines would reciprocally
operate into.
He added that some of the countries on the African
continent were imposing high charges in a bid to discourage Nigerian airlines
from operating into their countries.
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