Stephen Gerard
Air Peace has acquired two Boeing 737- 300 aircraft as part of plans to expand its flight operations.
The new acquisition brings to six the number of Boeing aircraft on its fleet .
Speaking while taking delivery of the aircraft at the Lagos Airport recently, chairman of the airline , Mr Allen Onyema said the carrier was responding to the yearnings of passengers to serve them on many routes .
Onyema said as an airline, conscious of meeting customers’ demand, its management team have commenced route development and consolidation team that would be unveiled in the coming days .
He further said that Air Peace, with the additional aircraft would boost its flight operations and be able to meet passengers ‘ on time requests for services on many routes adding that the airline has the plans to resume operations in the Port Harcourt, which was recently suspended to ensure that people of the South – South region , in particular the oil and gas industry enjoy its services . He however said that the expansion plan is still at its formative stages as the airline will soon roll out new routes across the country .
Onyema said with additional aircraft now in Air Peace fleet, the airline will now meet its flight obligations for enhanced services .
He said :” Air Peace has acquired two more Boeing 737 -300 aircraft to boost its operations . This is not just for acquisition stage , but part of our strategic plan to boost our operations on all sectors of our flight .
“This acquisition is a response to yearnings from customers for Air Peace to come on stage and service many routes , where other carriers have not been doing well .
“So many routes and locations ate asking for Air Peace to please service them .
What we have done is just response to these yearnings .
Because of the good service we have been giving to Nigerians, there has been this yearning for Air Peace to please service these routes “.
“We needed more equipment to be able to do that .
And we have been promising them we will do that and that we have just done .
We have acquired the two airplanes , in fact one of the aircraft arrived from the United Kingdom last weekend .
We now have a fleet of about six Boeing aircraft , with our three DORNIER Jets to boost our operations .
That is where we are, we want to continuously give Nigerians the best flight services”.he said.
He further said,”Even on our existing routes we want to consolidate . That is the whole idea behind the acquisition of more aircraft to consolidate and expand our flight services .
In the coming days the new routes and other developments will be unveiled . We have not yet concluded on the new routes”.
Stressing further he said that “it is certain we what to resume our Port Harcourt operations.
“We want to serve the people of Rivers State very well , because of the oil and gas industry and other areas .we what to offer quality services and dedicate an aircraft to them so that other airlines do not waste passengers time .”
Meanwhile, Onyema has disagreed with the proposal by some experts that the regulatory body : Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) evolve a policy for the categorisation of airlines .
Some experts canvassed that airline be categorised in licensing and regulation according to the size of their fleet and scale of operations .
The Air Peace boss said such sweeping classification is not enough evidence to ascertain the strength of airlines , but the effectiveness of their flight operations .
He said :” I do not agree that airlines should be categorised in with their capacity , fleet size or scale of operations . What is important to me is the quality of service .
That to me is the best criteria . Such bogus criteria is insignificant in categorising airlines because one person may be lucky to access done funds somewhere to run an airline , that does not guarantee effective operations .
Explaining further he said, “Having too much money in airline business is not tantamount to good services, they are two separate issues, you may have three aircraft and run an effective operation, on just three routes that does not mean you are a small airline , but you are running an effective operation .
“It will be laughable for you to have three aircraft and want to operate many routes, how are you going to match the size of your fleet with scale of operations .
What some of us are saying is that the size of your fleet should restrict your scale of operations. It is all about good service delivery .”
He further said :”The issue of airline operational capacity as basis for licensing and some operators are canvassing is a matter of debate.”
“I wholly and completely disagree with people who propose that airlines should be licensed in categories , be it the bigger players , middle players and small airlines according to their fleet size or operational capacity.It is just mere debate.”
“How do rate an airline ? How do rate one airline as either having capacity or not having capacity? What is the benchmark?
“It is a matter in my estimation of the choice of the operator which route to fly , what equipment to use and strive to have the operational edge , then how do benchmark me against other airlines .
“For instance , Air Peace could decide today to fly only into Owerri and Enugu and carry out very excellent services on such routes by proving to people we can do it very well ,that to me is a good airline .
“And if tomorrow we acquire more funds and get wide body aircraft and want to fly into London , and operate very good flights without extending our flights to Germany , Italy, but just concentrate on Lagos to London , even when we are not a big airline like some Nigerian airline or BA , Lufthansa , KLM and the likes and we operate London route very well , how then do you say we do not have capacity”.
To me airline capacity is relative . It depends on what you want to achieve as an airline using the quality of your services to demonstrate what you can do .