Air Peace 777
West Africa’s biggest carrier, Air Peace on Wednesday pushed Nigeria’s aviation profile a notch higher with the delivery of its third Boeing 777 aircraft. The airline took delivery of its first Boeing 777 aircraft on February 23, 2018, making history as the first Nigerian carrier to acquire and register the type of aircraft in the country. Air Peace acquires B777 Aircraft, defends order of banned B737-Max8 In preparation for its international operation, Nigerian carrier, Air Peace, has taken delivery of its third Boeing 777-300 aircraft. A Nigerian carrier, Air Peace, has taken delivery of its third Boeing 777-300 aircraft in preparation for the airline’s commencement of international operations. The 374 capacity aircraft, christened: “Anuli Peggy Onyema”, touched down at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 3.20p.m on Wednesday. Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace will be deploying its B777 aircraft for evacuation of 200 Nigerians stranded in Canada following the outbreak of the coronavirus. The Nigeria High Commission in Canada said it was ready to evacuate Nigerians stranded in that country due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
Nigeria’s leading carrier, Air Peace on Friday set a new record with the arrival of its newly acquired Boeing B777-200 aircraft, becoming the first and only Nigerian airline to procure and register the brand of airliner in the country.
The development is coming weeks after the airline took delivery of two Embraer 145 aircraft on January 31 and February 9 respectively and made history with the setting up a subsidiary, Air Peace Hopper to organise its short-haul operations in line with its no-city-left-behind project.
The 274-capacity aircraft, which touched down at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 3.45 pm on Friday, is the first of two Boeing 777 airliners Air Peace recently acquired in preparation for its Dubai, Sharjah, London, Guangzhou-China, Houston, Mumbai and Johannesburg services. The airline is finalising talks to add two more B777 aircraft to its fleet soon.
Air Peace 777
The aircraft with registration mark 5N-BVE bears “Ifechukwu”, the middle name of the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Mr. Allen Onyema. The aircraft, which was flown in by the Chief Pilot of the airline, Capt. Victor Egonu and Capt. Simon Donoghue, arrived to a rousing welcome by an excited team from Air Peace led by Onyema and and enthusiastic crowd of top aviation personnel as well as security operatives.
Air Peace 777 Routes
Speaking on the arrival of the aircraft, Onyema assured that Air Peace, which launched its its Banjul, Freetown and Dakar services on February 19, would soon start flights to Dubai, Sharjah, Guangzhou-China, London, Houston, Mumbai and South Africa. “Air Peace is ready to begin operations on these routes as soon as we get the cooperation of our aviation agencies, our home governments, and the outside governments of the countries we are going to. As soon as we get their cooperation, we will make it happen, ” Onyema said.
The feats Air Peace had recorded in just three years of its flight operations, he insisted, were a proof that Nigerian airlines could compete with and even outperform the legacy airlines if there was a level-playing field. His words: “This is the first time a Nigerian carrier is acquiring a B777. What we have had in the past were through leases which were not favourable to the airline operators. So, I don’t believe that Nigerian airlines cannot compete favourably with others. What we have been lacking is the necessary support. “Within the last three years, we have been able to increase our fleet size to 24 aircraft. That is rapid growth and we are still growing stronger.”
Onyema dismissed insinuations that Nigerian airlines were not safe, stressing that Air Peace spent up to $2.5 million annually in maintaining a single aircraft on its fleet. “So,” he contended, “in terms of safety, we can assure our guests of the very best because even our technical partner is a firm from the United Kingdom. “Air Peace cannot be said to be weak or indebted and if there are airlines that are going through that, they should come out and name them instead of generalising.” The Air Peace boss said he remained opposed to the Single African Air Transportation Market (SAATM) initiative, insisting that Nigeria had little or nothing to gain from it. Onyema explained that most African airlines that would take advantage of the SAATM window to operate in the country lacked attractive destinations Nigerian airlines would reciprocally operate into. He added that some of the countries on the African continent were imposing high charges in a bid to discourage Nigerian airlines from operating into their routes.