BY OLAPEJU OLUBI
Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Dr Allen Onyema, has provided granular details as to why his airline would be flying into Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom and not the main hub, Heathrow in London.
Onyema, who made the clarification ahead of his airline’s inaugural flight into the UK come March 30 this year, noted that the UK authorities said Heathrow Airport was full and he was advised to go for Gatwick Airport, which appears to hold great fortune for the carrier in the long run.
According to him, the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) Air Peace signed with the UK government was expressly clear and unambiguous in terms of airports to operate into.
“You give me your primary airport; we give you our primary airport. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways come to our country using our primary airports of Lagos and Abuja. “When we applied, they told us Heathrow was not available to us and they were even suggesting London Stansted Airport or Luton. They also suggested Gatwick, but I refused. I wanted to go to Heathrow, which is their primary airport.
“But after some time, we said okay, as Nigerians are groaning under the weight of high fares; we decided even if it is Scotland; we would go. So, we decided to take Gatwick. Gatwick was not really our choice but in the long run we decided to see some goods in choosing Gatwick.
“Many of our people live in the South East part of London and there is heavy traffic into Central London from Heathrow, but at Gatwick, they allotted southern terminal to Air Peace and when you get to south terminal, you get out of immigration, take your luggage, you walk into the Gatwick express train within three minutes and that will take you to Victoria, right into Central London. From the south terminal you have access to the tube, you have access to national rail and you have access to road transport to other parts of the UK. So, Gatwick has turned out to even be better for us. That’s why we took Gatwick,” Dr Onyema explained.
Nonetheless, parents whose wards are studying in London, United Kingdom are already itching for Air Peace to commence its Lagos-London service as the carrier has special air fares for students.
The offer is considered soothing and timely as many Nigerian parents have had to literally empty their accounts to sustain their children in various UK schools as air fares and tuition cost an arm and a leg.
Onyema, who unveiled the special package for students, urged travel agents to ensure the offer was not abused by passengers, noting that the fares will make it easy and affordable for students to return to Nigeria during holidays and travel back at resumption.
He said that he decided to give this offer to young Nigerians studying in the UK to help them connect with home regularly so that they would not stay permanently overseas and get acculturated.
“Several parents have been disconnected from their children. Many students have not been home for over two years because their parents cannot afford return fares to London. Parents will no longer suffer to raise money for fares for their children because the student fares will be affordable for all parents.
“My children all schooled abroad and we insisted that they return to Nigeria during their school breaks no matter how short the duration of the holidays were. “This is to enable us to remain connected to our children and ensure they stick to our values and culture. I know this is also the desire of several other parents but this desire has been cut short because of high fares travelling to and from Nigeria, But this narrative will change as soon as Air Peace commences flights to London,” Onyema said.
He explained that the Air Peace UK route was borne out of his love for Nigeria and to put an end to high fares from Nigeria to London and back, promising that the airline would give Nigerians the best option in terms of fares.
