BY OLAPEJU OLUBI
Air Peace Airlines has described its international operations as solid, reliable and certified by foreign aviation bodies, including the International Air Transport Association (IATA), whose clearing house it belongs to.
The flag carrier’s Spokesman, Stanley Olisa, stated this in reaction to a recent television interview where an undisclosed aviation stakeholder made sweeping statements to disparage Air Peace and local operators in general; thus flaunting them as lacking in capacity and expertise to carry out successful international operations.
While advising uninformed stakeholders hell-bent on tarnishing the image of local operators to seek facts before speaking to the media, Olisa insisted that the airline has the right equipment and personnel to sustain and even expand its international service.
According to him, saying Air Peace was not a member of IATA clearing house and operates point-to-point was an exhibition of dangerous ignorance by the stakeholder “who spoke authoritatively about how Nigerian airlines are going to fail, as he is wont to do.
“Always predicting how Nigerian carriers are going to fail and how he has the magic wand to stop the failure if he is consulted. But he does not know that Air Peace is in the IATA clearing house”, Olisa stated.
He added that Air Peace, aside possessing the operational credentials to do international services, has since forged strategic offshore alliances to fortify them.
“By lauding another airline in the said interview, which he said is operated professionally because the airline has indicated its interest to operate regional service is the old strategy to pit Nigerian airlines against one another, which in recent times has failed woefully because the airlines have realized that some of those who strut around as industry experts waiting to be consulted do not mean well for the airlines.
“We are not in the business of prosecuting campaigns of calumny on other airlines but for the so-called expert to gloss over Air Peace, the only Nigerian airline operating regional and international flights for over six years, is not only unfair but is reflective of those old games that have stopped working,” Olisa explained.
He added that the point-to-point operational model, which does not allow Nigerian airlines to succeed on international routes, as alluded to by the stakeholder, was somewhat true but did not take realistic parameters into consideration.
Olisa said: “We agree with him that the model has its limitations but he failed to add or realise that Nigeria does not have transit facilities at international airports. Air Peace operates connecting flights such as Lagos-Banjul-Dakar and Lagos-Accra-Monrovia”.
Besides, Nigerian airlines are pushing that the Nigerian Immigration Service should recognize transit passengers and not insist that they obtain Nigerian visa before connecting their flight.
“We hope that things will change when transit facility is built at out airports and the Nigerian Immigration Service is on the same page with us about transit passengers. That is even when we would be ready to benefit from the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).
“We expected the stakeholder to comment on the myriad of challenges confronting Nigerian airlines instead of indirectly castigating Air Peace, the largest carrier in Nigeria operating about 3000 flights monthly, a figure that is higher than the total number of flights operated by all the other Nigerian airlines put together,” Olisa noted.
On flight disruptions, Olisa said it was totally unfair to solely blame the airlines for the delays and cancellations; noting that he (the stakeholder) should have also critically dwelt on the issues that engender the disruptions.
The Air Peace Spokesman emphasized that no airline deliberately delays flights or takes delight in cancelling flights.
Olisa explained, “Every airline wants to record a high percentage of on-time performance but there are several factors that cause flight disruptions beyond the control of the airlines. The Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has just announced a harmattan haze in the northern part of the country. This obviously will disrupt flights and soon it will come down to the south. Airlines suffer delays due to VIP movement; aircraft are grounded due to bird strike. All these in addition to other factors beyond the airlines cause flight delays and as an “expert” in the industry who has put in many years in the sector, he should know better than pushing the blame on the airlines.
“We advise that the so-called aviation expert should be fair when opinionating on industry issues and refrain from making Air Peace, or any other Nigerian airline, look unserious and foredoomed. He should avoid vindictive sentiments and channel his energy into offering key insights that can help move the country’s aviation industry forward for the good of all”.
