We are ready to code-share with any airline-Chairman Air Peace

Air Peace aircraft (inset:Barrister Allen Onyema, Chairman/CEO)

The cry for consolidation has been ongoing for a while in Nigeria aviation industry but most of the domestic operators have paid deaf ear to it.  The Chairman of Air Peace Allen Onyema said Air Peace will rather go into code-sharing with any airline that is ready to do business with it than merger. According to Onyema, “We can go into code-sharing with any airline that wants to do business with us. We will prefer code sharing to merger. We have invested so much into our operation than to merge with another airline that is not ready to pursue our goal in setting up of the Air Peace. We want to employ more Nigerians. We are out to provide jobs for Nigerians”.

On expansion plan he said, “We take it a day after another. First and foremost, we started with a fleet of seven aircraft .If we have started with two aircraft, yes, we might be talking of expansion now but we started with seven aircraft. At times with more aircraft, they are not available for operation, because they are down or probably, they have gone for maintenance. However, nobody wants to be static. We look forward to adding to our feet.  When God says it is time for expansion, we will do that. It is the wish of every airline to expand.  We do not want to bite more than we can chew. Greed at times can make people want to service every route. For us, we want to be sure the route we want operate into will be is viable.”

He also explained the cost of maintenance that cannot be jeopardised by the airline. “Maintenance is one area you cannot joke with. Everything is done in dollars. Light maintenances are done in Nigeria but checks are done abroad. Day to day maintenance is carried out here in Nigeria. We have outsourced our maintenance to  a  British company anchored by BTC Maintenance Aviation Limited.  They are here. We brought them down from the United Kingdom. None of our aircraft is taken to the sky without their permission. It comes at a huge cost. We embrace this because we do not play with lives of our passengers and staff. We do not want to play with our machines also. I have not flown another airline since we begin operation because I trust the maintenance done on the machines.”