Air Peace boss, Onyema calls for FG’s support in int’l aero-politics fight
The chairman of Air Peace, Barrister Allen Onyema has called on the federal government to support Nigerian airlines designated on the international routes in international aero-politics fight.
Speaking in Lagos on Friday September 28, Onyema stated that the airlines need the federal government to help them in international aero-politics because is not within their power to do that.
He explained that it took Senegal two and half years to okay its operations into their country.
You have given me routes to fly , I have applied to all the countries and am ready, but the authorities in these countries are trying to frustrate us, Onyema said.
In his words: “We are going to Senegal every two months. It took two and a half years for us to be allowed to fly into Senegal. So when you say you have given us rights to fly abroad, have you bothered to find out how it has fared with us. Med-View went to London, had problems in London. Bet me whatever problems Med-Vew had, all those foreign airlines have done three times over in Nigeria, if you touch them, their government will come after you. I remember when Abacha went after them and gave them a dose of their own poison. And what did they do? They stopped and allowed Nigerian Airways to start coming again. They wanted to do it to Arik, somebody gave it to them. So we need to protect indigenous investment that are providing jobs for the teaming masses of this country, we need to protect them”.
Onyema said Air peace has lost over a billion in six months flying to the West Coast.
He stated that this will not deter the airline from operating into the West Coast, stressing that the airline just want to be consistent on the routes.
“So whatever we are making here we are expending them on the West Coast region because of their charges. Some of these airlines are receiving assistance from their government. Some of them are not even paying any tax. Air peace right from day one started paying tax. The kind of charges we have in our own home country, they don’t have in their country. And when we got there they put their charges which is 5 times over on us. How do you expect Nigerian airlines to succeed? People should hear our cry, Nigerian airlines are suffering not because they can’t get it right. Some of these businessmen that own these airlines have done other businesses and succeeded, why I see that over 70 airlines have passed the length and breathe of this country and only 5 remaining? And out of that 5 how many of us are actually healthy,”?, Air Peace boss asked.
He noted that Nigerian airlines are being demonised in the eyes of the Nigerian flying public that they are weak and cannot compete.
He craved for support to succeed on the international scene so that Nigerians will start flying at the right fares.
“We are Air Peace, we will make this country proud, that is our promise. On the international scene Air Peace is going to fill those gaps that government is worried that they are not being filled. That is why we went for 10 brand new plans at a go. We want to fill those gaps being occupied by international carriers coming into Nigeria. We want to represent this country proudly, Nigeria will be proud.”
Onyema lamented that In Nigeria we are giving Ethiopian Airlines 5 cities to fly into.
He asked what stops Nigeria from telling Ethiopia to fly into only two destinations, that if they want to go to Kano, they should partner with Azman and Max Air.
“That is how to promote these indigenous airlines. If you want to come to Lagos or others, FirstNAtion, Air Peace, Arik, Aero, we are all there. No country allows its flanks open in the name of open skies. Open skies is on paper, America signed every aviation document under the sun, Britain signed every aviation document under the sun, what the Europeans are doing now is TOC to prevent you. There are so many ways they bring things to the fore to frustrate other from coming in. why are we leaving our flanks open in the name of big brother, we are allowing people to coming in as they want. We don’t even fly to Ethiopia, no airline will ever fly to Ethiopia. we don’t even have one aircraft going to Ethiopia, yet we are celebrating Ethiopia. when Ethiopia brought their Airbus A350 the whole country celebrated it everybody was there. When Ethiopia flew to Kaduna to land, Ethiopia, first airline to land in Kaduna. It was in all the papers, radio and television with people who are not supposed to be there, were there celebrating it”.
“Ethiopia did all female flight, before they came it was celebrated and people who are not supposed to receive then went to the airport to receive them. when Air Peace brought Nigeria’s first 777 ever, I was almost stopped from even bringing it in. they didn’t want me to bring it in and when the battle was over and I brought it in, it was left for me and my staff only. Nigeria’s first ever triple 7, that I spent money for my country to be type certificated to own 777. It is not my duty to spend that money, it is the government that should do that, but I did it. I got Nigeria that certification, now every airline can do that, that was why Medview was able to bring it into the country. When my own 777, the first ever to be owned by this country, it was only my staff and some aviation security and baggage handlers. When we did our all female crew, the highest person that came was the airport manager. The pilots, engineers were all female , that was something anybody could have made use of to encourage your citizens. But it went like that. So what we are saying is that they should support us. It is not fair demonising Nigerian airlines. So air peace will make this country very, very proud”.
Air Peace boss disclosed that: “Why did we buy four 777s? why did we order brand new jets 737 Max? the Max has over 7,000 nautical ,mile range. We bought all these equipment because we want to cover that gap that is making government of the day worried. We want to cover that gap for the Nigerian government and people of this country. Those 737 Max, we don’t want Nigerians to be flying through London in order to get to Amsterdam. We don’t want Nigerians to fly through Ethiopia in order to get to Milan”.
Onyema emphasised that: “We don’t want Nigerians to use Emirates and pay through their noses in order to get to Frankfurt. Air peace decided to bring in these jets, the state of the art 777, brand new latest invention of Boeing 737 Max in order to do these destinations direct for Nigerians. We want to start flying Lagos to Paris direct with those Max. we want to deploy another Max Lagos to Frankfurt. We want to deploy the Max Lagos to Amsterdam, we want to deploy it to Milan. We want to deploy Abuja to Jeddah. We want to do Kano to Dubai with this. We want to do Enugu to London with it and in some days we use our 777 for London through Lagos where majority of people travel from. So the 777s are meant for the London route and the US route because of its range. It is meant for China because of its range too and cargo. It is meant to go Johannesburg because of the traffic there too but most of the work like Mumbai and others will be done with the 737 Max which will be taking about 180 passengers. You are not going to go to Mumbai with full load of 370 something that the 777 will carry so we decided that we are going to do those routes with the 737 Max . So what are we looking for again? An airline has emerged out of this country to plug all the gaps. Don’t let anybody deceive you that Nigerian airways did 1500 routes, it is a lie. Nigerian airways never did 1500 destinations. Where will you go? with how many planes? In all their of operation the maximum equipment they had was about 32, from 1960 to the time of liquidation. And people are signing Nigerian airways as if it was a success. Nigerian airways was a monumental failure which we should not be proud of but today people are talking as if that was the best thing that had happened to Africa. it is a lie. This was an airline being heavily subsidised, it never made the money of its own. They have budget for Nigerian airways in the government budget and you say it was a success. Is that how to run business”?.
He said President Buhari wants indigenous investments to succeed, adding that this was why the operators got duty waiver on importation of aircraft and spares for commercial aircraft and waiver on VAT.
He said Air peace has trained over 40 pilots in less than 4 years of operations, adding that his training and support to the industry cuts across the entire length and breathe of the country.
We do not discriminate, not even against gender. I am from Anambra state, I have trained over 17 northern pilots. In fact the South West and the northerners are even more in that top echelon than people from South East. It Is not that I deliberately shunned my people out, no but I believe that we are all one nation and where ever I get merit I take. Air peace is being run by 95percent women and they are succeeding, Onyema said.
According to him: “The Nigerian banks and financial institutions all over want to collaborate with this emerging star out of Nigeria to succeed. Why cant we now as citizens of Nigeria and government of Nigeria support this airline to represent this country very well. I am not calling to be made the national carrier, we are already a flag carrier for this country. Med-View is a flag carrier for this country, Arik, Max Air, Azman, they all have destinations to fly. What I am doing in all honesty is calling on government to now support these airlines to succeed”.
Onyema said President Mohammadu Buhari regime has challenged Nigerian airlines by his suspension of Nigerian Air to rise to the occasion, to show that they have strength, that they can fill that gap, which made the government in the first place to think of floating a national carrier which is a moribund idea.
Air Peace boss maintained that the government has truthfully challenged the operators, to leave up to the expectation of this government who has done something most governments will never ever do, by retracing a step when they saw something was going wrong.
“It means the president does not care about political correctness but cares about the future wellbeing of the entire nation called Nigeria, because many countries are leaving the national carrier idea and our president decided now to call it a halt. So this President indirectly and inadvertently has challenged Nigerian airlines to start getting it right and I think they are all going to do that,” Onyema explained.
Maida expressed excitement at Nigeria’s success at World Radio Communications Conference 2023
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Maida expressed excitement at Nigeria’s success at World Radio Communications Conference 2023