Two months after Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace commenced operations to Sharjah, the carrier has maintained its three weekly flights it started with. The airline is also seeing a load factor of 60 percent and above.
While AirPeace continues to operate three times weekly to Sharjah; TuesDays, Fridays and Sundays, from only Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos, Emirates operates two daily flights from both MMIA and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport is an international airport, Abuja, amounting to 14 frequencies in a week.
Stakeholders in the aviation sector had raised doubts on whether the carrier will sustain the route and frequency into the destination as a result on aero politics on the route.
But Allen Onyema, chairman, Air Peace restated that Air Peace is well prepared to ride the storm.
Onyema said: “Before you go into any business, you need to study the business and the environment. You have to know that airline business, for example, is a risky one. What are the factors that have made many airlines in Nigeria to fall by the way side? You really need to know where you are coming from; where the other airlines are coming from and what has been responsible for their failure.”
This is also as the airline has kept its ticket fares relatively lower than its major competitors in the market.
BusinessDay’s checks show that a return ticket on Lagos-Dubai route using high-end airlines such as Emirates and Qatar Airways costs between N300,000 to N370,000, which between 32 percent and 27 percent decrease compared to AirPeace who is offering its passengers between N203,000 to N270,000 for a return ticket on the same route.
A travel agent who craved anonymity told BusinessDay that when the carrier started it had high patronage because the airline charged as low as N155,000 to N175,000 for a return ticket on Sharjah route but the airline is currently charging over N200,000, making the average passenger book for ticket months ahead using Emirates or other high end carriers in a bid to get cheaper rates.
John Ojikutu, aviation security consultant and secretary general of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI) thinks Sharjah is a wrong route to start with.
“Sharjar is a connecting point not a hub. Which airline would Air Peace be partnering with? Can Air Peace compete in air fares with airlines on that route? Time will tell. Whichever airline goes into code sharing may have to reduce its frequencies to Nigeria or to Air Peace final destination; at what cost to the airline or to Air Peace? Either way, the cost of air fares to the passenger will be the determinant factor,” Ojikutu queried.
He suggested that the best or only option for Nigerian carrier on international routes is direct to London or any state east coast or central state of US as these are the major routes of Nigerian travellers.
IFEOMA OKEKE
