Gatwick says no dirty tricks in Air Peace slot delay

Gatwick airport, the secondary international airport serving London has said that there are no dirty tricks in allotting slots to Air Peace.

Allen Onyema, the chairman of Air Peace, recently alleged that the airline has not started selling Lagos to London tickets for dates between October and December because Gatwick Airport is delaying in granting it slots to operate within the period.

But Gatwick Airport in an email to BusinessDay said the claims made by Onyema “are not true.”

“Winter slots have not yet been allocated to any airline so I can assure you that is not the case,” Rebecca Byng, London Gatwick media relations manager stated in the email.

“The Winter 2024/25 schedule has yet to be coordinated by Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) who allocates slots on behalf of London Gatwick.”

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Byng further stated that airlines wishing to operate at London Gatwick during the Winter 2024 schedule are invited to make their initial submissions to ACL by Thursday, May 9.

“We are proud to welcome Air Peace to London Gatwick and look forward to working with them to positively benefit travel and trade on the important London to Lagos long-haul route,” the Gatwick spokesperson stated.

The Airport Coordination Limited (ACL) is the world’s leading and largest Airport Slot Coordinator, working with 72 airports across the globe to ensure efficient use of capacity and better operational performance for the benefit of airport operators, airlines and passengers.

Onyema who made the claims during the 48th Annual General Meeting and exhibition of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) at Balmoral Convention Centre, Ikeja recently said while other airlines are already selling December tickets, Air Peace can’t sell at the moment because Gatwick Airport is yet to give it slot to operate between October to December.

He described this as part of the ‘dirty tricks’ played on the Lagos-London route to fight Air Peace.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.