Air Peace says it has commenced demonstrations in preparation for its international flights, as mandated by the regulator, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
The Corporate Communications Manager, Air Peace, Mr Chris Iwarah, said the demonstrations commenced with a flight to Dakar, Senegal, on Tuesday.
He said, Air Peace’s journey to long-haul operations to Dubai, Sharjah, London, Houston, Guangzhou-China, Mumbai and Johannesburg begins at 08:00 hours today with demonstration flight to Dakar, Senegal with the NCAA on board.
“The non-revenue flights to demonstrate our capabilities with the Boeing 777 next will be visits to Kano, Port Harcourt, Freetown, Johannesburg and Sharjah. This is what goes into ensuring the safety of our valued customers and crew; it is costly but necessary.”
Meanwhile, the airline on Monday inaugurated its non-stop flights from Lagos to Banjul, The Gambia.
The airline, which said it would no longer route its Lagos-Banjul flights through Accra, Ghana, had earlier broken its connecting flights to Freetown, Sierra Leone and now operates direct Lagos-Freetown-Lagos flights.
The airline also said it was consolidating its leadership of air services on the West Coast of Africa with scheduling of more flights on the Accra, Ghana route.
According to Iwarah, the development will avail travellers an opportunity to cut cost and travel time.
He said, “We are pleased to announce the commencement of our non-stop flights to Banjul, the capital city of The Gambia, from Monday, January 7, 2019. We had routed our flights to Banjul through Accra, Ghana. The new schedule follows our experiment with direct flights from Lagos to Freetown. The pieces of feedback we have received from members of the flying public indicate that they prefer to take direct flights to Freetown and Banjul. The option saves air travellers money and time.
“We have also increased our offering on the Lagos-Accra with more flights. The new Banjul and Accra flight operations, we are sure, will not only deepen our West Coast operations, but also deliver a variety of smart options to our valued customers. We are a customer-centric airline and the strategy of our leadership of the airline business in Nigeria and West Africa is anchored on attaching great importance to the feedback of our esteemed customers.”