Air Peace, one of Nigeria’s leading local carriers has launched direct flight services between Lagos and Johannesburg even as Chief Allen Onyema, the Chairman of the airline insists that Nigeria airlines were capable of breaking barriers only if given the enabling environment to operate.
Onyema, made the who spoke with journalists at the end of a brief ceremony organised to mark the launch of the flight at the Murtala Muhmmed International Airport, Lagos expressed satisfaction at the accomplishment of Air Peace, said Nigerians will now heave a sigh of relief as they now have a choice of direct flight to South Africa.
The airline owners said it was the plan of the company from inception to connect Nigeria to the world through the cities, adding that Thursday’s flight to Johannesburg was a fulfilment of that long term plan.
He said, “I feel great for Nigerians, I feel very happy because Air Peace is trying to offer the Nigerian flying public direct flight to Johannesburg and back to Nigeria instead of going around the world or Africa, It is just a matter of less than six hours and but it’s something that we had looked forward to.
“We promised Nigerians six years ago, that we are not just going to connect cities in Nigeria but connect this country to other nations of the world and gradually we are getting there.” He however said the airline will not rest on its oars but initiate sustainable plans in order to compete favourably on the route.
Again, he said, “We don’t want to deceive ourselves by saying that we are the only one on the route and for us to sustain the tempo of whatever we are doing, we have to be pragmatic, we have to be strategic in our planning. Like I said, we are following our business plans of 2014 meticulously and we have achieved everything we said we would do in 2014.
“We believe that we can do more with articulate planning, the era of saying Nigerian airlines is a push over is gone forever, all we need is the enabling environment to operate. And also, the launch of this flight by Air Peace will help to boost economic progress and our bilateral relations”, he added.
