Industry operators have
identified the inability of the airlines to work together as one of the major problems of the aviation industry.
The chairman of Air Peace, Mr. Allen Onyema said that the key to success in the industry is for the airlines to work together, promising that his airline would be willing to code share with any other domestic carrier.
“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 that it will be difficult to merge with another airline that is not ready to pursue our goal in the setting up of Air Peace. We want to employ more Nigerians. We are out to provide jobs for Nigerians”, Onyema said.
Onyema, who spoke on plans to expand his fleet, said, “we take it a day 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. At times with more aircraft, they are not available for operation, because they are down or probably, they have gone for maintenance”.
According to him, nobody wants to be static we look forwards to adding to our fleet. When God sas it is time for expansion, we will do that. It is the wish of every airline to expand. We do not want to bite more than we can chew. Greed at times can make people want to service every route. For us, we want to be sure the rout we want to operate into will be viable.
He said that the ultimate goal of the airline is to operate timely and safe operation and the way to actualize it is to abide by the rules and keep up to the high standards.
Maintenance is one area you cannot joke with. Everything is done in dollars. Light maintenances are done in Nigeria but checks are done abroad. Day to day maintenance s carried out here in Nigeria. 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 taking to the sky without their permission”, he said.
He said the operating environment in Nigeria is harsh but expressed the hope that such challenges would soon be overcome.
