Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has reportedly written to the British Government on Aviation to formally request that Air Peace be granted access to fly into Heathrow.
According to reports, TheMatrix.com gathered that Air Peace, a new Nigeria carrier has been denied slot to operate in the UK Heathrow’s Airport but alternative landing route, Gatwick Airport.
Keyamo in the supposed letter threatened that Nigeria will “reciprocate” by refusing a landing of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic at the Lagos and Abuja airports.
In the letter, Keyamo expressed the Federal Government displeasure” towards “consistent denial of slot” by the UK slot office to Air Peace on the Nigeria-London route to fly into Heathrow.
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The letter reads in parts: “The Airline had made consistent efforts in the past to fly into Heathrow Airport from Lagos, but was denied, and only granted approval to fly into Gatwick Airport from Lagos,” he wrote.
“Following the approval granted the Airline by the Nigerian Government to fly the Abuja-London route, the Airline approached the Slot Office for slot allocation at the London Heathrow Airport, for flight operations planned to commence in November 2024, during the IATA Winter Season. It is highly disheartening that up till this moment, the Airline has not received any favourable response from the Slot Office.”
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“Therefore, it is necessary for Nigerian designated carriers to enjoy similar reciprocity that British carriers are enjoying. It is highly unfair on the side of the British authorities and a discredit to the Nigerian authorities and the Nigerian nation as a whole, for slot allocation to Nigerian carriers to be an issue at all times. We feel totally betrayed by the British authorities for not reciprocating the good gesture of the Nigerian State and its people,”
“The slot allocation issue should not be used as an alibi to deny the existence of a Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, which hallmark is based on the principle of reciprocity. Whatever concessionary arrangements you have with your airports with third parties, the concessionaire(s) should legally inherit your existing obligations (especially those under Bi-Lateral Services Agreements) in respect of the use of those airports.
“Arising from the foregoing, I wish to emphatically state that if Air Peace is not allocated a slot at the London Heathrow Airport, it might be difficult for British flag carriers to access Nigeria’s tier one airports from the next Winter Season, unless when a frank discussion is opened with us to break the debacle associated with the slot allocation at Heathrow to the Airline and other Nigerian designated airlines.
“While expecting your timely intervention over this pressing issue dear to the hearts of Nigerians, please, accept the consideration of my warm regards.”
