• Onyema bemoans 'devilish conspiracy', says Nigeria may pay dearly for it
• Passengers welcome development, favour patriotism
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| Air Peace airplane |
'Seun Ibukun-Oni, Abuja
DAILY COURIER - The Chairman of Nigerian indigenous carrier Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has raised the alarm that foreign carriers operating the Nigeria-UK route are allegedly conspiring to send Air Peace out of international operations by crashing airfares on the route.
There is an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines to use lower pricing to eject Air Peace from the Nigeria-London route, alleged a visibly displeased Onyema on Channels Television on Tuesday.
“If they take out Air Peace prematurely, this country will pay dearly for it, 10 times over, billions will be lost, there will be another heavy strain on the naira,” he said.
On March 30, 2024, Air Peace reciprocated the lopsided Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Kingdom when the local airline began direct flight operations from Lagos to Gatwick Airport in London.
The Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo; and his counterpart at the Trade and Investment Ministry, Doris Uzoka-Anita; were onboard the inaugural Lagos-London flight alongside businessmen and women.
The development has been applauded by many industry observers with more local airlines being encouraged to commence international flights to profitable routes..
Prior to the entrance of Air Peace to the Lagos/London route, foreign carriers had, for many years, not only monopolized the lucrative route, but exploited the Nigerian travelers who were made to pay the costliest fares in the region while neighboring countries like Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic enjoyed very low fares.
The exorbitant fares by the foreign carriers reached its peak following the over $800 million of their proceeds trapped in Nigeria with the mega carriers withdrawing their lowest inventory fares, leaving the highest inventory fares for Nigerians to grapple with.
The withdrawal of low inventory fares by the foreign carriers saw airlines like Virgin Atlantic increase fares on the economy class to N2.353,200 for just a seat while the business class skyrocketed to N5,345,700 on the Lagos-London route.
For Turkish airlines, the economy class ticket for the Lagos-Istanbul route rose to N874,661 while the business class ticket jumped to N1,980,876.
This was the same situation Nigerian travellers experienced with other foreign carriers like British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa, KLM/Air France, Air Maroc and Ethiopian Airlines.
Before the foreign carriers ganged up to increase their fares, economy class tickets on the Nigeria-UK route was between N400,000 and N650,000, depending on the booking period while business class was between N800,000 and N1.2 million.
The financial pressure the exorbitant fares inflicted on the Nigerian travelers became so unbearable that those who could not afford it were forced to suspend international trips while some like students shifted their patronage to the neighboring countries where low inventory fares were available.
The rip off continued even after the federal government had paid the substantial part of the trapped funds with the outstanding funds now put around $29 million.
‘Deliberate Frustration’
The Air peace boss said foreign airlines operating the route “are fighting back”. “We are being deliberately frustrated in all ways,” he said, citing groundhandling and space allocation difficulties at Gatwick Airport in the last couple of days.
“It’s a very devilish conspiracy,” said a dissatisfied Onyema. “All of a sudden, (foreign) airlines are underpricing, below the cost, it’s not up to one month an airline was advertising $100, another one $305, $350.
“Fill up the entire aircraft and carry people on the wings, it’s not even enough to buy your fuel. So, why are they doing that? Their governments are supporting them because Nigeria has been a cashcow for everybody.
“Their governments are supporting them to do this and take Air Peace out. The idea is to take Air Peace out and the moment they succeed in taking Air Peace out, Nigerians will pay 20 times over again.”
Relief however came with the commencement of Air Peace flights to London.
Immediately Air Peace announced its fares which have been found cheaper and more affordable for Nigerians, the foreign carriers, out of fears of losing their Nigerian, passengers to Air Peace have engaged in price wars for survival.
According to investigations, majority of the foreign carriers operating on the Nigeria/London route have conspired to drastically slash fares to the point of charging fares lower than Air Peace fares.
Apart from introducing new incentives and more friendly marketing strategies, the foreign airlines are neck deep in dangerous battles for market share that is capable of sending weaker airlines out of business and equally wreak havoc on profit margins or even challenge the very survival of Air Peace.
A price list sighted by Saturday Tribune showed Air France luring passengers to book between May 15 and June for economy class seat on the Lagos/London route with N907,782 fares as against the over N2 million for the economy it charged before now.
British Airways has also slashed its fares on the Abuja/London Heathrow to N1,394,536 as against the over N3 million it was formerly charging. Now, an economy class ticket on Virgin Atlantic from Lagos to London has been brought down to N980, 654,000 as against the N2.353,200 it used to charge.
The ongoing price wars and other gang ups by the foreign carriers which has raised concerns amongst key players have been attributed to the desperation of the mega carriers to push out Air Peace out of the Lagos/London route.
The price war strategy adopted by the foreign airlines has been described as one of the unjust engagement of the use of international Aero politics to frustrate any African carrier they see as competitive like Air Peace.
Many of the foreign carriers are said to be uncomfortable with the presence of Air Peace in view of its capacity in the areas of modern day aircraft in its fleet that can compete favourably with those of the foreign carriers.
The global record of the Nigerian carrier as a carrier that had in the past engaged in flight operations between Nigeria and other countries like China, UAE, Israel Brazil and South Africa during the pandemic seamlessly may have caused sleepless nights for the foreign carriers.
Many key players while reacting to the foreign airlines price wars described the market as extremely agile and impatient. They advised Air Peace to urgently change its game plan by making “the world taste what it means to be a truly Nigerian brand. You could see the presence of intentionality in their campaigns. It shows a clear understanding of the market. They are unleashing on Air Peace products of insights derived from the algorithm in their passengers platforms. They know where these customers are, they have their details, they may even be engaging passengers directly.”
The sudden reduction in the fares the key players said will be for the benefit of the Nigerian travelers who are the brides. They, however, expressed surprise at how the foreign airlines that refused to reduce their fares ab initio suddenly slashed the fares just to get at Air Peace.
The airline boss invite other Nigerian airlines to join the Nigeria-UK route to break the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by foreign carriers operating into the four major gateway airports of Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.
“I invite other Nigerian airlines to join the fray, let them come, let all of us do international operations. Yes, international aeropolitics is very dirty but somebody must pay the price,” he said.
Onyema expressed appreciation to President Bola Tinubu and Minister Keyamo for being “solidly behind” Air Peace even as the airline navigates the politics side of operating to London.
