….Airpeace must not be out of business like Arik, Bell View Airlines; It has come to stay
Media practitioner Jide Iyaniwura has urged the Federal Government, along with the Ministers of Aviation and Foreign Affairs, to lend their support to Air Peace in overcoming the challenges it faces in the United Kingdom.
He lamented the treatment Air Peace has received from Gatwick airport workers, pointing out their actions as frustrating for the airline and its passengers bound for Nigeria.
In a video, Iyaniwura, who narrated his experience of the trip, commended Air Peace for maintaining a high level of professionalism in its service delivery onboard flights.
He emphasized the importance of government support in ensuring the success and growth of the Nigeria-based airline amidst ongoing obstacles.
“Talking about my experience on the plane, I can only describe it as awesome. the food was absolutely beautiful. I had real goat meat pepper soup as starters, and when I dey talk about starters, the portions were good. Big chunky meat and stuff. Wey be say the goat meat self dey challenge you say Oga get stunning; not like the one you get in British Airways and Virgin flights. Trust me, well-rounded portions. You have jollof rice and chicken. Before we landed, there were skewed Proms; it was beautiful and lovely.
“The plane itself was very clean, bright, spacious, really good, and decent size in terms of the space of the seats.
“The experience was excellent, the host and hostess were perfect, and they attended to every single one of your needs. Do you know that sometimes you press the assistance button to request an assistant on British airways, it takes them sometimes 5 minutes to get to you. These guys (Airpeace) were very prompt.
“The only thing I can ask them to do is to please maintain that level of service. I will give them an 8/10 in terms of service; really really first class. They did very very well. Well done,” he said.
Speaking on how the Nigerian government can handle the pressing challenges, Jide Iyanuwura charged the concerned Ministers to meet with the United Kingdom government, explaining the economic implications if the maltreatment against the airline continues.
READ ALSO: Air Peace Increases Lagos-London Route Capacity Over Rising Demand
“My name is Jide Iyaniwura, what I want to share with you is my experience of being on board Airpeace’s inaugural flight from Gatwick Airport in London to Lagos Murtala Mohammed Airport on the 30th of March 2024.
“I had originally planned on traveling with BA, and bought a flexible ticket, but I decided to support Air Peace instead. So I bought an Air Peace ticket and waited for the inaugural flight on the 30th of March.
“This is my boarding pass so that you’re aware; as you can see, it’s a 10:25 flight, and it was the 30th of March, 2024. So I will try and break this down into three different areas.
“One is the pre-boarding arrangement, your pre-ground operation before we boarded. The second will be the experience on the flight and the third will be when we landed at Murtala Mohammed International Airport.
“The pre-boarding operation for me felt like the airport authorities’ operation was designed for you to look like air peace was inefficient. People don’t normally think or know that the ground operations are largely out of the hands of the airline operations, those are in the hands of the airport operators, in this case, Gatwick Airport and they also have a third-party baggage handling company.
“From when I arrived at the airport at about 7:20, I noticed that there was absolutely no sign that pointed you to the direction of where Air Peace was checking in, and that was wrong; that was the first alarm there.
“Secondly, where they went and put Air Peace was at the back of the corner somewhere, second alarm bell. Thirdly, at the check-in desks that they put there, the belt that moves the luggage from the check-in operator to the baggage handlers was not working.
“Now, for an inaugural flight of an air operation, these are things you expect the airport operators to have worked very carefully with the airline to make sure they are seamless. They obviously gave their assurances but failed.
“As an outsider, if you stood there, what comes to your mind was seeing Air Peace not Gatwick operations. The other thing also was that I realized that the number of desks that they had available for us to check in was very limited, even worse was the fact that the staff they had behind those desks were rookies; I think they probably just hired them and trained them very very quickly, because they were asking each other, How do I do this? How do I check excess luggage? How do I pay for this?
“I just stood there and tried to stand aside as an operations person myself to take it all in and see how all of this was likely to affect the brand of Airpeace in the minds of the passengers who were trying to experience this sort of beautiful operations.
“Anyways, I checked in; mine was absolutely seamless. Everything went very, very well. And then decided to have a third baggage, I had some hand luggage and decided to check-in. So I bought a small suitcase again and put them in there, and I decided to have a third baggage check, which was supposed to cost $150 to check-in. When I got to the Airpeace desk, they said there was one of $150 and the tag they gave me and ticket to go and pay at a desk of the third-party luggage operators. I think they are called Swift Flight, the name of the baggage handlers.
“When I got there, they said it was £170, and I thought, how can you translate $150 to £170, Because normally, $150 meant £130 because Sterling was stronger than the dollar. They said no; that is it.
“A lady stepped forward and she introduced herself as the executive director of the airline. Young, very vibrant lady and she said her name was, Nnenna. She offered to pay the cost and I said no, you don’t do that. This is not about the money, it’s about the principle—the principle that I can see this third-party company trying to frustrate the effort of Airpeace. And I think it was at that point she told me her name was Nnenna and her surname was Onyema; and she said that she was the daughter of the Chairman of Airpeace. And I have to say she was very professional, very kind and she knows her onion when it comes to customer service and operations. She did the right thing; she did everything by the books.
“I also met another lady called ToyIn Olajide, she’s the chief operations officer on ground. These ladies did all they could do, all that, in textbook terms, was needed to be done to make that flight leave the grounds on time.
“But you know what? I stood there and I laughed because I saw how they had planned really frustrate those efforts. Do you know that it was right before the check-in that the airport communicated to Air Peace that they were changing the check-in that they (airport operators) communicated to Airpeace? They were changing the check-in desk from a fiddle operational one to one that didn’t have an operational conveyor belt.
“Let’s think about this: Airpeace did everything right, their communication was bang on; they informed us three days before, two days before, on the day itself, that they were going to open the checking decks at 7:40 and looking to close the check-in desk at 9:40 and they are looking for the flight to take off on time, they did everything by the book.
“Let us remember that AriK Airline has tried this route before and they were frustrated and died; Med-View Airline has tried this route before and frustrated and died; Bellview Airlines, frustrated and died. Do you know why they don’t want this route to succeed for Nigerian airline operator; it is very lucrative, it is six-hour flight. Compared to a London-New York flight. The London-New York economy is £350 to £400. London-Lagos, the minimum you can get is about £800 to £900 for low season. During the high season during this Easter period, some people were finding Virgin Atlantic at almost £3,000 for Economy delight, while premium was touching at about £3,500, Don’t even go to their upper class because it’s about £6,000 to £7000.
“The same 6 hours flight London to New York will be €300 to €400 for economy, maybe €800 for premium and maybe about £1,500 to £2,000 maximum for business class. So you can see how lucrative this route is, but only two British airlines planning this route from Lagos to London, British airways and Virgin Atlantic.
“The British government and these two companies we do everything within their power to truncate the effort of any Nigerian airline trying to break into that market.
“So my advice to Chief Onyema and his operations crew is that they should not see this as a business-to-business fight, this is a government-to-government fight. it is a British government establishment versus Nigeria government establishment fight.
“Chief Onyema needs in addition to the minister of federation, and I’m not saying he’s not doing what he’s supposed, I’m sure he is, but he needs two other ministers behind. He needs minister of industry trade and investment and minister of foreign affairs besides him.
“The trade part of the business, the minister needs to let the British know what the consequence will be if they continue to do what they are doing. Foreign side of it, the airline business is not just about the trade, it’s also a diplomatic business as well. There is a very strong diplomacy in airline operations, when you talk about the BASA (Bilateral Air Service Agreement) agreement, all this are foreign related discussion.
“These two ministers together with the minister of aviation hold the key to unlocking access to UK airspace for Nigerian operators. They have to stand beside Allen Onyema, they have stand beside Airpeace to make this work.
“Everybody on the plane, there was a guy, the captain chief, captain Lawrence, he walked the length and breadth of the plane did fantastically well and spoke to everybody. It felt like home, I really like that the entire crew was all Nigerian.
“The CoPilot was a guy called David Olatoru, they spoke pidgin English. It was beautiful, there was a bit of turbulence on the route. These guys handled it brilliantly, effortlessly. Take off and landing was beautiful.
“We have to help Airpeace succeed and not see them go the same way as Arik or Bellview and Med-view. Airpeace has to succeed, Nigerians in diaspora; particularly Nigerians in UK, we have a role to play. If you have to write Airpeace, write to them, let them know that they are discriminatory practices at Gatwick airport. Point to the fact that they are deliberate, intentional in their effort to see and bring down in Nigerian airline operator at Gatwick.
“If you don’t do it, British airways will bring the prices down for a while so as to get ride of Airpeace and one Airpeace is gone, they will go back, this time charge you maybe triple and all those Easter period trip you normally make, you can’t make them anymore.
“So, literally it is our own interest to make sure that we see Airpeace succeed, please lets do that, let’s stand behind one of ours,” he said.
