Air Peace, Nigeria’s largest carrier has taken delivery of the second set of its 13 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. The airline took delivery of the aircraft at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
Speaking during the arrival of the aircraft in Abuja on Thursday, Allen Onyema, CEO of AirPeace said what the airline is witnessing is the power of a vision.
“When we started in 2014, we knew that by 2017, we would start acquiring the triple seven jets. When the time came, we became the first airline in Nigeria to acquire the Boeing 737 and now, we have three of such jets.
“When it was time to service airports with low traffic like Minna, Akure, Makurdi, Jalingo, and other places, we acquired eight 50-seater Embraer 145 jets. While we were doing it, we didn’t lose sight of the need to start planning for brand new jets.”
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On September 13, 2018, the airline became the first airline in sub-Saharan Africa, to pay for 10 Boeing 737 Max 8, and our order is still intact, and we won’t cancel it.
While Max was having some issues, Air Peace decided to go for Embraer 195-E2 after meticulously studying it.
It the first aviation company in Africa to pay for 13 brand new planes and would be acquiring 17 more to make it 30. These planes shall be deployed to domestic and regional routes.
These jets are the best. If all the powers shut down while 30, 000 feet above sea level, a RAM deploys automatically and the plane lands effortlessly. The aircraft speaks to the pilot and the pilot speaks to it. “By the time we get everything, we would be providing 8000 jobs to Nigerians,” Onyema explained.
He said Air Peace is not the only airline that has been affected by the pandemic worldwide and Nigeria is not immune from those things that have tried to destroy aviation worldwide, adding that Air Peace has about 20 of its aircraft still in maintenance world-wide because of the effects of COVID19.
Onyema also said most of the countries where these planes were taken to are in various levels of lockdown and as a result, the pace of work on its planes has slowed down, adding that this has depleted its capacity both within and outside Nigeria.
“We are not alone in this; all the older airlines are experiencing the same thing. The only airlines that may not be having these challenges are the new airlines within and outside Nigeria because they are just starting but old airlines are all doing C-checks,” he said.
He however assured that at the end of July, all its planes that are in maintenance will be brought back.
The ceremony was graced by government dignitaries, top corporate executives, members of the diplomatic corps, and high-profile aviation stakeholders.
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