*Lagos-London route drops from N3.5m to N1.2m economic class ticket
*Crash due to Air Peace decision to bring Lagos-London economy ticket down to N1.2m
*Air Peace boss alleges conspiracy by foreign airlines to further bring down ticket prices
*Says it’s not healthy for local airlines as foreign airlines are backed by their govts
By Our Correspondent with agency report
The Chairman of Nigerian indigenous carrier Air Peace, Allen Onyema has claimed that foreign carriers operating the Nigeria-UK are deliberately undercutting airfares on the route as part of a scheme to push Air Peace out of international operations.
He made the allegation on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme. Mr Onyema who asserted that the existence of an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines is generating fear among the established international airways expressed concern over alleged conspiracy among route.
It would be recalled that the price of international flight tickets on the Lagos-London route had soared to as much as N3.5 million. However, following Air Peace’s introduction of a return economy class ticket priced at N1.2 million, foreign carriers like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Qatar Airways found themselves compelled to significantly reduce their fares in order to remain competitive in the market.
According to him, “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. 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.
“It’s a very devilish conspiracy. All of a sudden, (foreign) airlines are under pricing, 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.”
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 aeropolitics is very dirty but somebody must pay the price,” he said. Onyema expressed appreciation to President Bola Tinubu and Minister Keyamo for being “solidly behind” Air Peace even as the airline navigates the politics side of operating to London.
Speaking in another development, the management of Air Peace has denied claims that it abandoned a passenger and closed its counter for its Gatwick to Lagos flight on Monday.
Mr Stanley Olisa, Corporate Communications Lead of the airline, stated this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Lagos.
According to “Olisa, the airline’s explanation became necessary after a video surfaced on social media alleging that it abandoned a Lagos bound passenger at Gatwick Airport.
The video has claimed that the airline closed its counter before closing time because the aircraft was over booked on the London to Lagos flight, which is false.”
Olisa said that the video was misleading, malicious and an attempt to tarnish the reputation of the airline. He explained that the passenger arrived at the airport very late after the check-in phase was concluded and the counter closed according to the approved time of the airport management.
“Gatwick Airport operates by slot timings allocated to each of the airlines operating out of this airport. The check-in operations of airlines are slot-based, and airlines take turns based on their approved times.
“Once your slot timing is up, you must vacate the counters for the next airline’s utilisation. The check-in process ends at 9.00 a.m. as advised in the Terms and Conditions section of our e-ticket and website, and the counter was vacated by Air Peace in accordance with our slot allocation at 9:55 a.m.
“To ensure passengers do not miss their flights, we send them multiple messages at different times before their flight, 24 hours, 14 hours and 6 hours before flight departure.
“Departure for this flight was scheduled for 11:10 a.m., so all processes needed to adhere to this time,” he clarified.”
He further said that contrary to the claim in the video, the UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority could attest to the number of passengers on the manifest for the said flight. He said that the aircraft left Gatwick with some seats unoccupied, and so, no overbooking took place.
“Gatwick Airport has CCTV coverage showing the time the passenger arrived at the airport and Air Peace counter and the time the maker of this video got to the airport.
“The late arriving passenger duly paid the no show fee, was booked to travel on a subsequent flight, and therefore the issue was resolved at the airport.”
