Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has written to his British counterpart and lodged a formal complaint over the refusal of the British authorities to allow Air Peace to fly to Heathrow Airport.
Nigeria’s flag carrier airline, Air Peace currently flies to a second-tier airport, Gatwick because of the slot system.
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In a letter dated August 1, 2024, and addressed to Louise Haigh, the UK secretary of state for transport, Keyamo warned that if Air Peace is not allocated a space at London Heathrow, Nigeria will be forced to “reciprocate” by denying British Airways and Virgin Atlantic slots at the Lagos and Abuja airports.
Although Heathrow is the UK’s primary airport, Air Peace, the Nigerian carrier, currently operates from Gatwick Airport, the secondary airport.
All efforts by Air Peace to get a slot at Heathrow, which is closer to the heart of London, have been unsuccessful.
The Minister had few weeks ago, said that the Federal Government would write to the United Kingdom to allow Nigerian carriers particularly Air Peace operate to Heathrow Airport.
The Minister who spoke at the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) seminar in Lagos said Nigeria would no longer allow a situation where the country’s airlines are not allowed to tier one airports overseas in line with the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) saying failure not to allow Air Peace into Heathrow may lead to Nigeria taking British Airways and others to places like Ilorin, Kano, and other obscure places.
