Allen Onyema, chief executive officer of Air Peace, has stated that tickets for Lagos-London flights are sold out until September.
Recall that on March 30, Nigeria’s national airline, Air Peace, began flights between Lagos and London.
During an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Onyema stated that the airline owns over 30 planes and has placed orders for 33 more.
“At the end of the day, Air Peace will be owning over 60 aircraft,” he said.
“When you say what has it been like, right from the day we published our fares, even that inaugural flight got sold out within days.
“It got sold out in days and even up to September. So, the traffic is there; however, the last 48 hours has not been easy.”
According to Onyema, Gatwick Airport instructed Air Peace to deposit almost £2 million before beginning operations.
“Are British Airways and Virgins paying that amount of money to Nigeria airports as security deposits? And when you ask them when you will get this money back, they would tell you until you stop flying to Gatwick,” he said.
He said Air Peace and the airport started negotiations and “they brought the amount down to some level”.
Onyema had also said the airline faced internal and external obstacles before it could commence the Lagos-London operations.
