- Onyema Encourages Local Airlines To Commence International Flights To Profitable Routes
Barely two weeks after an indigenous Nigerian airline, Air Peace began operating the Nigeria-United Kingdom Route under the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, the Chairman of the indigenous carrier, Allen Onyema, has raised the alarm that foreign carriers operating the Nigeria-UK route are allegedly conspiring to send Air Peace out of international operations by crashing airfares on the route.
He disclosed that there is an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines to use lower pricing to eject Air Peace from the Nigeria-London route.
Onyema raised the alarm on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.
“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.
The Matrix reports that price of international flight ticket on the Lagos-London route was as high as N3.5m but with Air Peace pegging a return economy class ticket for N1.2m, foreign airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Qatar Airways have been forced to slash their prices to stay competitive.
The Air peace boss said foreign airlines operating the route “are fighting back”. “We are being deliberately frustrated in all ways,” he said, citing ground handling and space allocation difficulties at Gatwick Airport in the last couple of days.
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“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 cashcow 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.”
The airline boss invited 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 aero politics is very dirty but somebody must pay the price,” he said.
