Allen Onyema: Nigeria-South Africa Flight Fulfils Air Peace Six-year Dream

Air Peace Chairman, Allen Onyema, has said that all Nigerian airlines require to break even is an enabling environment.

Air Peace

Onyema said this during the airline’s inaugural flight from Lagos to Johannesburg, South Africa which took place in the early hours of Thursday.

The airline’s Chief Executive Officer who expressed delight with the launch of the new route spoke in the defence of Nigerian airlines, saying that they were no pushovers in the industry.

He said, “The era of saying that Nigerian airlines are pushovers is gone forever. All we need is the enabling environment to perform and we will, beyond your expectations.”

Onyema added that the desire to connect to Johannesburg was a six-year dream.

He said, “I feel very happy that Air Peace is trying to afford the Nigerian flying public direct flight to Johannesburg and back to Nigeria. We promised Nigerians six years ago when we started Air Peace that we will connect this country with other nations of the world. Gradually, we are getting there.”

Similarly, Chief Operating Officer of the airline, Mrs Toyin Olajide, said the operations on the route would begin with two flights per week.

She said, “We are starting with two frequencies in a week. We are doing one on Thursday and another on Sunday but the intention is to increase to daily flights.

“Due to the current situation in the market, it is better to take it one step at a time. Then as the market increases, we will continue to increase our flights.”

Speaking on the rewards of the flight, Olajide said that it would deepen the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa and strengthen the implementation of the bilateral agreement between both countries.

Nigerian airlines had complained of inaccessibility to foreign exchange as well as lack of adequate bailout hampering the sector’s growth.