The Chairman of Nigerian indigenous carrier, Air Peace, Mr 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.
Onyema gave the revelation on Tuesday while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
He alleged that there is an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines to use lower pricing to eject Air Peace from the Nigeria-London route.
“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.
Recalls that Air Peace reciprocated the lopsided Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Kingdom when the local airline began direct flight operations from Lagos to Gatwick Airport in London on March 30, 2024.
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo and his counterpart at the Trade and Investment Ministry, Doris Uzoka-Anita were onboard the inaugural Lagos-London flight, alongside businessmen and women.
Many industry observers have applauded the development, saying the development will encourage local airlines to commence international flights to profitable routes.
It was reported how the price of international flight ticket on the Lagos-London route, which was as high as N3.5m for economy ticket went for N1.2m as Air Peace commenced the London route, with foreign airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Qatar Airways forced to slash their prices to stay competitive.
However, speaking on Tuesday, the Air Peace boss said foreign airlines operating the route “are fighting back”, adding that his airlines are being “deliberately frustrated in all ways”.
He cited ground handling and space allocation difficulties at Gatwick Airport in the last couple of days.
“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 cash cow 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,” he said.
Onyema, therefore, 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 aeropolitics is very dirty but somebody must pay the price,” he said.