Civil society lauds Tinubu over support to Air Peace

April 16, 2024

The National Civil Society Council of Nigeria, (NCSCN) has applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the unwavering support to Air Peace and other local airline operators, stressing that Nigerians should patronise its indigenous Airline Operators to strengthen the naira. 

The council also pointed out that Air Peace and other local airline operators should be granted at least a year tax waiver going by their patriotism, urging the Federal Government to consider Air Peace for a National Honors award going by her long track records of sincere and logical national contribution to nationhood especially the recent Lagos-London route airfare reduction which has resulted in all nigerians throwing weight behind the airline  operator  and which has also re-oriented Nigerians on the need for indigenous patronage when it comes to air transportation and others.

“The Federal Government and all well-meaning Nigerians must rise up to save our most patriotic and progressive indigenous operator, Air Peace, and other well-meaning Indigenous airlines, from this international Aero-politics and pricing warfare by foreign airlines who are seriously threatened by the rising profile and business strategies of a Nigerian Operator with impressive global records of flight operations between Nigeria and other countries like China, UAE, Israel, Brazil and South Africa and India just to mention  a few.. 

“Air Peace has really exposed the foreign operators, just like GLO Nigeria did to the foreign Telecom Providers that almost milked and bled Nigerians to death in the name of telecommunication. Who would have imagine the possibility of all foreign operators coming down so low in pricing if not for the entrance and intervention of our patriotic and nationalistic.”

The Executive Director of the National Civil Society Council of Nigeria, NCSCN, Comr. Blessing A. Akinlosotu made this known in a briefing in Abuja on Monday. 

Read Also: Air Peace blazes the trail in Nigerian aviation

Akinlosotu said:  “The Council remains undaunted and will keep fighting the course of Good Governance, Equity, Justice and excellent Service Delivery to all Nigerians across board. 

“It is an incontrovertible fact, acknowledged across the globe, that Nigerians are one of the most traveled and traveling demography in the world. With a massive population of over 70 million persons traveling in and out of the country annually accounting for over 70% of the entire traveling statistics of Africa, the Aviation Industry in Nigeria is a highly critical sector to National Development. 

“Air Travel must be elevated to the front burner of national discourse, henceforth, and should no longer be treated as an exclusive concern of the elite or as a luxury reserve for the rich, this is a crucial sub-sector of our national economy that carries a  heavy weight of implications with multi-faceted impact on many aspects of our national life, be it economic, political, even socio-cultural and traditional heritage.

“Some countries’ economies depend and thrive mainly on the Aviation Industry, with Ethiopia as a good example. If properly manned with patriotic Administrators and deliberate policies in favour of Nigeria and Nigerians, this yet untapped Industry can surprisingly revamp the Nation’s ailing economy, considering the volume of citizens that travel in and out of the country on daily basis.

 “Until recently, the alarming exploitations of Nigeria and Nigerians, coupled with gross maladministration of the Industry by the previous Governments, Air Travel Service Providers and Airline Operators have gone unnoticed, fleecing innocent travellers with exorbitant and exploitative fares from Nigeria to many international destinations.

“However, the ongoing dramatic pricing war occasioned by the entry of the Air Peace into the Lagos-London Route, has opened a large can of worms and exposed decades long economic sabotage and unacceptable exploitation of Nigeria by Foreign Airline Operators in various international routes.

“The commencement of Air Peace Operations in the Lagos-London route at an unbelievable low rate or price has become one of the greatest shocks and historic development in the Industry which has sparked a frenzy of actions and reactions by players in the industry. 

“Before the commencement  of Air Peace operations in the Lagos/London route, foreign operators had, for decades, monopolized this high traffic and very profitable route, taking undue advantage of innocent Nigerian travellers, subjecting them to pay costliest fares in Africa, while other countries pay much lower rates for same destination.

“Most foreign operators such as Turkish airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa, KLM/Air France, Qatar Airways, Air Maroc and Ethiopian Airlines charged as high as Four Million Naira (N4,000,000)  for the economy class tickets on the Lagos-London while business and first class tickets were sold for as high as Eight and Fifteen Million Naira respectively. 

“Before the foreign operators conspired to increase their fares years ago, the economy class tickets on the Nigeria-UK route was between N400,000 and N650,000, depending on the booking period while business class was between N800,000 and N1.2 million.

“The financial pressure the exorbitant fares inflicted on the Nigerian travellers became so unbearable that those who could not afford it were forced to suspend international trips while some like students shifted their patronage to the neighbouring countries where low inventory fares were available. Immediately Air Peace announced its operations on the London route with fares which have been found to be by far, much more affordable for Nigerians, the foreign carriers, out of fear of losing their massive Nigerian passengers to Air Peace, have engaged in collusive price war and dirty aero-politics for survival and to frustrate Air Peace out of the London route like they have done to other Nigerian carriers that plied that rout in the past. .

“In addition to unsustainable traveller’s incentives, ridiculously low fares and aggressive marketing strategies, the foreign airlines are now into dangerous battles for market share that is capable of throwing smaller operators out of business, while negatively affecting their profit margins. All these are aimed particularly at jeopardising the existence of Air Peace and other smaller indigenous Operators considering venturing into that route. Many Airlines are today forced to lure passengers to book for economy class seat on the Lagos/London route with N907,782 fares as against the up to N4 million for the economy they charged before now. 

“British Airways has been forced to slash its fares on the Abuja/London Heathrow to N1,394,536 as against the over N3 million it was formerly charging. Now, an economy class ticket on Virgin Atlantic from Lagos to London has been brought down to N980, 654,000 as against the N2,353,200 it used to charge.

“The ready and reasonable question any objective mind should ask over this sudden and shocking development is “what has suddenly changed in terms of operational cost?”. “Have the foreign operators suddenly turned Father Christmas and are no longer interested in making profits? Has there been any major global economic upturn or reduction in operation and service costs that warranted such a giant down-review in prices in the Lagos-London route? 

“Let’s do an imaginary calculation of the huge thousands of naira differential between the former high charges and the new low rates, and multiply by the number of international trips by Nigerians and the number of years this exploitation has lasted. We will all be shocked at the Billions of Dollars this would amount to

“Air Peace must be protected, rewarded and honoured for this patriotic gesture. The Civil Society Council hereby calls on all Nigerians to patronise Air Peace in the Lagos- London route, irrespective of the deceptive lower pricing of the foreign conspirators, as this will save our Naira and further grow our National Economy. All the foreign operators repatriate their profits and funds back to their home countries, but Air Peace is indigenous and reinvests profits here in Nigeria to the advantage of the Naira.

” The Council, therefore, wants to use this medium to immensely Thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR for the unwavering support he has given to Air peace through the Minister of aviation, this is indeed a departure from past, he has shown experience as an accomplished Businessman himself, by supporting indigenous investments.

“ We want to further passionately appeal to Mr President to grant Air Peace and other Indigenous Operators a tax waiver of One Year Tax Holiday or any further support that, would go a very long way in keeping this patriotic indigenous Operators afloat, against the foreign onslaught.

“Also, an Executive Order should be given to all Government Official embarking on International Trips to routes within the operations of Indigenous Operators such as the Air Peace, to mandatorily fly our Nigerian brands.”

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