Aircraft grounded, passengers stranded over delays in pilots’ work permits

The delays in renewing visas for Air Peace’s foreign pilots and crew have forced Nigeria’s largest carrier to the ground several of its aircraft as passengers experience several flight delays and cancellations, leaving many passengers stranded.

In the last few weeks, Air Peace’s local and international flights have been disrupted over the inability to secure work permits and visas for non-Nigerian pilots and crew that operate its aircraft, especially its new and wet-leased aircraft.

The airline is also facing a revenue shortage as several of these new aircraft are packed across the country, unable to operate.

However, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has said that apart from a few days ago when its visa application portal was shut down due to some upgrades, it has ensured that the application process is running smoothly and foreigners and their Nigerian hosts are sending positive feedback to the NIS.

Tony Akuneme, deputy Comptroller of Immigration and Service PRO told BusinessDay that the NIS began new visa policies in 2021 which opened up the visa regimes to include over 75 new visa categories.

“The problem with some of our people is that instead of going online to check what is obtainable, they prefer to use agents and consultants who create unnecessary bottlenecks and charge them high premiums,” Akuneme said.

According to him, “In the last two years, thousands of foreigners no longer go to Nigeria’s embassies abroad since the federal government introduced the new Visa on Arrival (VOA) which is applied for online and issued within 48 hours once everything is okay. ”

This process, he said has made the visa application very seamless and fast.

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Air Peace has a protocol officer that liaises directly with NIS to process visas and work permits for its expatriates, a source revealed to BusinessDay.

According to checks, Air Peace has over 23 foreign pilots and crew that are type-rated on its new Airbus 320 and Embraer 195 which operates both local and West Coast routes.

Some of these aircraft are wet-leased aircraft, an arrangement covering the leasing of an aircraft alongside their flight crew and sometimes fuel.

The airline which currently has in its fleet 10 new Airbus 320 and five new Embraer 195 has since grounded most of these aircraft because the pilots and crew have been unable to secure work permits from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) that would enable them to work in Nigeria.

The situation has left many passengers stranded as passengers blame the airline for not having the capacity and competence to operate short and long-haul flights.

The situation has also forced the customers to call on the Consumer Protection Council to intervene.

One of the affected passengers said, “Nigerians demanded better newer aeroplanes to fly in and Airpeace responded by acquiring some of the most modern aeroplanes but that means Airpeace will have more foreign pilots.

“However, strangely the Nigerian government is failing the travelling public and Airpeace by failing to grant work permits to the airline’s horde of foreign pilots.

“How is it that an indigenous airline can acquire brand new planes faster than the federal government of Nigeria can issue mere paper called work permit to the pilots?”

A source at Air Peace told BusinessDay that the new aircraft are deployed to feed various routes including some of its 20 local routes and West Coast routes it operates which include Accra, Banjul, Dakar, Douala, Freetown, Monrovia and Niamey.

“We have been battling with visa renewal issues for our foreign crew and pilots for sometime now. As we bring in more leased aircraft, we need visa on arrival for the new aircraft.

“Some of our planes are wet-leased requiring that we bring in a foreign crew to operate them. For our Airbus and Embraer planes alone we have over 23 foreign crew. We have 10 Airbus 320 in our fleet currently. We need these foreign crews because they are type-rated on the aircraft. Without visas, these pilots cannot fly the planes,” the source said.

The source also told BusinessDay that while these planes are packed, the airline is losing money it should be making flying the planes and the airline still has to maintain the planes and pay for parking charges.

A few days ago, Air Peace blamed recent flight delays, cancellations and rescheduling on delays in the renewal of visas for its expatriates and pilots.

The airline also stated that unscheduled aircraft maintenance contributed to the flight disruptions.

This is also as the airline opened a refund channel for its customers nationwide.

Air Peace stated in a circular, “We apologise to our esteemed customers, who have experienced delays in their well-planned flights these past couple of days.

“The disruption of these flights was a result of unscheduled aircraft maintenance and largely by delays in renewing work permits/visas for many of our expatriate pilots, which have led to a chain of delays and cancellations across our local flight operations.

“While we regret the inconveniences caused, be assured that we are doing everything possible to minimise the effect of these disruptions,” the airline had stated.

BusinessDay’s investigations show that the situation has remained unresolved as the airline continues to cancel and delay its flights because there are no pilots to fly its plane.

Meke James, a passenger whose flight to Benin on Thursday has been moved told BusinessDay that flights of Airpeace are being delayed daily because of no pilots with planes occupying space at airports across Nigeria.

“I have a flight to Benin on Thursday and the flight has been moved already. This is a big shame,” he said.

James explained that Air Peace’s network is unarguably the largest in Nigeria and so several passengers are being affected by the failures of NIS to do the right thing.

According to him, several businesses have been affected by these flight delays and cancellations and passengers are getting fed up with the situation.

Sarah Udoh another passenger told BusinessDay that at a time the airline is trying to build confidence in the mind of Nigeria as regards its international flights, the federal government is frustrating their efforts.

“This is supposed to be our airline. How will the government be granted visas to foreign airline pilots and not do the same for a Nigerian airline? It is sad and calls to question the ease of doing business in Nigeria. If we don’t want these airlines to survive, then they should as well tell them so they can close shop,” Udoh said.

BusinessDay’s investigations show that the refunds for several affected passengers are currently being processed and most passengers have since booked alternate airlines to fly.