Nigeria Will Pay For It, Naira Will Crash If Foreign Airlines Succeed In Their Plan Against Air Peace – Onyema Raises Alarm

The Chairman of Nigerian indigenous carrier, Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has claimed that foreign carriers operating the Nigeria-UK route are planning to send Air Peace out of international operations by crashing airfares on the route.

He alleged that there is an unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines to lower pricing and eject Air Peace from the Nigeria-London route.

The Air Peace boss made the revelation on Tuesday while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.

Naija News reports that the price of international flight ticket on the Lagos-London route, which was as high as N3.5m for economy ticket went for N1.2m as Air Peace commenced the London route

This led to foreign airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Qatar Airways slashing their prices to stay competitive.

However, Onyema has claimed that foreign airlines operating the route “are fighting back”, adding that his airlines are being “deliberately frustrated in all ways”.

He warned that if the airlines succeed in their plan, Nigeria would pay dearly, as such development would lead to a strain on the naira.

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,” he said.

He cited 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 underpricing, 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,” he said.

Onyema, therefore, 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.