The cry for consolidation in Nigeria’s aviation industry has been ongoing for a while. But most of the domestic operators seemed not to be looking in the direction of a trend which many observers say is in vogue.
Allen Onyema, chief executive and chairman of Air Peace, said recently that rather than go into a merger with any other airline, Air Peace, a relatively new entrant, which is already making waves in the sector, would rather go into code-sharing with any organisation that is ready to do business with it.
According to him, “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.”
He noted that maintenance is a major issue in the Nigerian aviation sector adding that every transaction on it is done on foreign currencies.
According to him, only the light maintenance are carried out in Nigeria while the heavy ones such as C and D done outside the country.
He said Air Peace had already outsourced the function to a European country which gives a clean bill of health on any of its aircraft before it takes to the skies.
“Maintenance is one area you cannot joke with. Everything is done in dollars. Light maintenance are done in Nigeria but checks are done abroad. Day-to-day maintenance is carried out here in Nigeria but 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 but it comes at a huge cost. We embrace this because we do not play with the lives of our passengers and staff. We do not want to play with our machines also. I have not flown another airline since we began operation because I trust the maintenance done on the machines,” he added.
Speaking on future expansion plan, he said the management will not rush into opening or joining other airlines in any route, adding that it would carry out a feasibility study to know ascertain the viability of such an option.
“We do things one 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. Sometimes 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 but we do not want to bite more than we can chew. Greed make people want to service every route, but for us, we want to be sure the route we want to operate will be is viable,” Onyema explained.
Sade Williams
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