Allen Onyema, Chairman of Nigeria’s indigenous carrier Air Peace, has berated foreign airlines operating the Nigeria-UK route for allegedly frustrating and sending Air Peace out of international operations by slashing flight prices on the route.

Onyema, while featuring on Channels TV on Tuesday night said that there was an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines to use lower pricing to eject Air Peace from the Nigeria-London route it recently started.

The Air Peace Chairman said that “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.”

Recall that on March 30, Air Peace reciprocated what could be described as 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.

Festus Keyamo, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and his counterpart at the Trade and Investment Ministry, Doris Uzoka-Anita, were onboard the inaugural Lagos-London flight alongside businessmen and women.

Many industry observers have applauded Air Peace and encouraged more local airlines to commence international flights to profitable routes.

Meanwhile, the flight ticket price of the Lagos-London route was as high as N3.5m but with Air Peace pegging a return economy class ticket for N1.2m, a move that forced foreign airlines such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Qatar Airways to slash their prices to stay competitive.

Speaking on the Channels TV programme, the Air Peace Chairman said that foreign airlines operating the route “are fighting back”, adding that “We are being deliberately frustrated in all ways.”

Onyema, who cited ground-handling and space allocation difficulties at Gatwick Airport in the last couple of days said that “It’s a very devilish conspiracy.”

He said that “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.”

The Air Peace boss invited 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.

He said, “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 appreciated President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Aviation for being “solidly behind” Air Peace even as the airline navigates the politics side of operating to London.