Air Peace to Start Flights to London, Houston before End of Year

Chinedu Eze

The federal government may have given the nod to support Nigeria’s biggest carrier, Air Peace in its quest to operate to London, United Kingdom (UK) and Houston, the United States(US). This followed the confirmation by the   airline  that it may start flights to these destinations by October, 2023.

Tthe Chairman/CEO of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, disclosed this  during the grand reception in honour of Nigeria’s 1976 Olympics Game and 1980 AFCON National Football teams in Lagos.

Lagos-London route is described by aviators as low hanging fruit for Nigerian carriers, but over the years domestic airlines have been denied flying the route, which is one of the favourite destinations for Nigerians.

Because London-Lagos route is a popular destination, cost of flight tickets is exorbitant due to high demand.

However, with the entrant of Air Peace to the route, airfares to London are expected to crash. Currently British Airways and Virgin Nigeria Airways operate direct flights from Nigeria to UK.

Onyema said the Ministry of Aviation recently contacted him on the Houston and London flights after a meeting held with government and officials of aviation agencies.

He said: “And now London is beckoning before October or thereabouts. Just recently the Ministry of Aviation contacted me on the Houston, just about few days ago on the meeting they held in Houston and they are now calling on Air Peace to do that route. We have the capacity to also do more legacy routes like Atlanta, New York when international aero politics permits. We are very ready and these routes are coming very soon.”

According to him,  Air Peace has plans to start other African and international routes, saying the airline has the capacity to fly to any destination in the world.

Onyema listed the international routes the airline currently flies to include: Guangzhou China, Johannesburg, Mumbai, India, Jeddah and Tell Aviv, Israel.

There have been calls in the industry for a review of the Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) the federal government signed with some countries whose airlines operate to Nigeria, advising that the key platform for diplomatic negotiation should be on the principle of reciprocity.

So, any country that does not allow Nigerian carrier, which has met the standards, to fly to any of its destinations, the Nigerian government would not allow any airline from that country to fly to Nigeria.