What Air Peace Has Done For Nigeria, By Onyema
Chairman of Air Peace, Dr. Allen Onyema has highlighted the visible contributions of the airline to Nigeria’s development, stating that the airline deserves applause for its impact.
Addressing journalists in Lagos during a media parley, Onyema said Air Peace has done a lot of humanitarian interventions on behalf of the country, projecting the image of Nigeria, while rebuilding confidence of the banking sector in Nigeria’s aviation industry through transparency and integrity in financial dealings. He said the airline has equally reduced the cost of international flights and exploitation of Nigerian air travelers by some foreign airlines.
Onyema said his proudest moment in Air Peace was “when we deployed Air Peace aircraft free for the service of the nation during COVID. He said the airline made flights to China while flights were also made to Turkey to bring back hundreds of Nigerians free of charge. He said a jet was deployed to make a 14-hour return flight three times to China during the period.”
Her further said the airline “brought unmatched pride to Nigeria during the xenophobic attacks in South Africa. During the war in Sudan, we didn’t wait for any government to come because we understood the bureaucracy that would be involved. We deployed our aircraft to bring in Nigerians free of charge.”
Onyema said Air Peace had spent sums of money running into billions on making rescue missions for Nigeria free of charge.
“We deserve to be applauded by the country. Nothing will stop us though from loving our nation. Government alone cannot do everything for its citizenry. Nowhere in the world has government done it alone and Air Peace has been playing its patriotic role for the country,” he stated, adding that “I will always believe in what one can do for the nation and not what the nation can do for you alone.”
“We made flying to UK possible for Nigerians. Without Air Peace, this would not have been possible,” said Onyema.
He emphasized the need for love for country among Nigerians, frowning at a situation where a few people who out of desire for further stigmatization of an already stigmatized country, rush to the social media with videos aimed at de-marketing indigenous investment.
“This country should be grateful to indigenous investors like Aliko Dangote, Michael Adenuga, Tony Elumelu, Allen Onyema and others who have invested so much for the benefit of the entire citizenry,” he said, stating that whatever happens to any of these investments affects jobs and the entire economy, while contributing to increased crime rate.
He explained that when flight cancellations and delays happen, it is most times, caused by factors beyond the airline as such occurrences create losses for the airline apart from inconveniences for the passenger. He said it happens anywhere in the world and appealed to air travelers to avoid unruly behaviour and cooperate with airlines to minimize effects of such eventualities that result from external factors such as weather, poor landing facilities, sunset airport constraints, bird strikes, amongst other factors.
Onyema appealed to the government to make the airports more transit friendly by creating transit hubs at the major international airports.
