Ime Akpan
The chief executive officer of Air Peace, Dr. Allen Onyema said the airline has readied three aircraft as cushion to absorb unexpected delays, preventing them from propagating and causing further disruptions to scheduled operations.
Onyema disclosed this at a press briefing held yesterday in Lagos.
“We have increased our buffer from one aircraft to three. What this means is that we now have three aircraft parked in case any aircraft develops either a minor or major fault, be it a bird strike or whatever. This is to further tackle flight delays or cancellations,” he said.
Onyema added: “These aircraft are parked to serve as a standby in case of minor or major faults in any of the airline’s operational aircraft.”
The Air Peace helmsman said 95 per cent of distortions in scheduled operations are not domiciled with the airlines, listing landing equipment, sunset airports, wild life invasion, weather, passenger behaviour, runway maintenance, and airport congestion, among others as the major contributors to flight delays and cancellations.
“If the weather, for instance, delays your flight by one hour, you run the risk of losing three hours. This affects the schedule cycle. Delays are not synonymous with Nigeria airlines. Neither the airline nor the passengers like delays.
“Flight delays come with costs to the airline because if your schedule is disrupted for say three hours, it may take you another week or two to clear the backlog because the operation is scheduled, not chartered. Most delays are caused by external factors and the things that happen to Nigeria airlines are terrible,” he said.
He said the airline had been subjected to malicious propaganda due to flight disruptions which are not entirely the fault of Air Peace.
Instead of demonising the airline, Onyema said it should be applauded for bringing “a lot of integrity to Nigeria” through it numerous interventions during national emergencies.
“Air Peace owes a duty to Nigeria; we want to instill a sense of belonging to every Nigerian. My proudest moment was when we deployed all our aircraft free of charge during the COVID 19 crisis.
We did four evacuation flights to Thailand, 12 to India to bring Nigerians back. We deployed our aircraft to airlift Nigerians who were targets of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. These interventions cost Air Peace several billions of naira.
We deserve to be applauded by Nigerians; anything other than this should be questioned,” Onyema stated.
