Air Peace boss bemoans neglect of local operators

Indigenous Airline operators as partners in economic development of the country should be treated as such by the government and regulators in the sector


To develop and sustain the aviation industry in the country, there is the need for the government to support and encourage local airline operators. Allen Onyema, Chairman of Air Peace, one of the front line local airline in the country disclosed that in 2022, Air Peace spent N78 billion naira on maintenance. Not just that the airline spent such a huge sum for maintenance, but that the funds went to foreign countries. He also disclosed that the airline has about $14 million stranded with the Central Bank, Nigeria and about 15 aircraft stranded abroad.

Onyema made these statements in an address he delivered on August 28, 2023, at the Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association held in Abuja. He said Nigerian airlines do not lack capacity; but a truthful government, support and ease of doing business.

The Air Peace boss went on to recount how he applied to run a maintenance hangar in 2015 after paying over 100 million naira to FAAN to lease land at the Lagos Airport but added that Air Peace is yet to get the land even eight years after. He said: “As I speak to you, we are yet to get that land. We are the largest carrier in West and Central Africa and the fastest growing airline in Africa. Yet we do not have a maintenance hangar. Not because we do not have funds to build one. If we had been given the land to build the hangar, by now, Nigeria will have an MRO they will be proud of, and this will attract foreign investments because other countries will come here to maintain their aircraft”.

Onyema said the ease of doing business in Nigeria is low as local investors face a lot of statutory bottlenecks which stifle their growth. In his words: “We are not serious in this country about encouraging indigenous investments. How do you grow your economy when local investors are being treated with levity and envy by their own ministers?

“How do you grow your economy when indigenous investments are overtaxed? These same investors are providing jobs for the populace. How do you grow your economy when people in government see you as an enemy, a rival, because they are beclouded by whatever sentiments they believe in, thereby making business difficult?” Onyema, who noted that the Nigerian economy is low-ebbed, said with political will, significant progress can be made, while urging Nigerians to give this current government time and benefit of doubt.

“They (government) inherited a massive governance burden, and the government needs forthrightness, sincerity of purpose, and a radical political will. “The government must be decisive enough to confront the entrenched vested interests in the polity. It must do everything to dismantle those interests. Public servants must be statesmen who must be committed to the principles of democratic governance. If this is not done, we are in for a serious problem.

The government must be ready to adopt a hard-line commitment to the principles of democratic governance, even in the face of reactionary pressures arising from the entrenched vested interests. All hands must be on deck to make this country work”. He said the practice of ethnic nationalism has slowed Nigeria’s development while also stressing that the country’s ease of doing business is poor.

Allen Onyema, through Air Peace have been actively involved in various humanitarian ventures, mostly in the area of supporting the Federal Government in evacuating Nigerians stranded in crisis ridden countries. Air Peace was handy in the evacuation of Nigerians trapped in China as a result of Covid-19; likewise, during the evacuation of Nigerians from Turkey as a result of the attempted coup in that country.

Air Peace also played prominent role in the evacuation of Nigerians from Ukraine at the beginning of the war between Ukraine and Russia and mostly recently for the evacuation of Nigerians through Egypt for Nigerian citizens caught up in the Sudanese war.