..as British authorities grant airline landing right to Heathrow
Air Peace airline has disclosed that it has set aside three aircraft from its fleet to serve as buffers that would help mitigate flight cancellations and delays.
This is as the British Authorities granted the airline landing rights to operate into London Heathrow airport, as the airline mulls Abuja-Heathrow flight operations from October 26th, 2025.
These were disclosed by Allen Onyema, Chairman and CEO of Air Peace, on Wednesday during a press conference in Lagos.
Onyema said, considering increasing flight delays and cancellations caused by bird strikes and infrastructure gaps across the airports, it has set aside three aircraft to help manage situations where any of its aircraft is unable to operate.
“Since May 10, 2025, when we introduced the buffer system where aircraft are set aside to serve as a standby to support in situations of flight delays and cancellations, we have noticed our operations improved as regards on-time performance. Currently, we are recording 85 percent one-time departures daily,” Onyema said.
Read also: Flight delays, cancellations soar on aircraft scarcity, poor rescheduling
He explained that 95 percent of flight delays and cancellations by Air Peace are a result of external factors and not the fault of the airline.
He explained that most of its flights are being delayed as a result of weather, infrastructure problems, birdstrikes, inadequate landing equipment and sunset airports, amongst others.
“Last week, we recorded two bird strikes. In the past five years, Air Peace has recorded 115 birdstrikes and over 30 bird strikes this year alone. But passengers do not understand that the flight delays and cancellations are not the fault of the airline,” he said.
“When bird strikes occur, it automatically takes out our equipment from operations. Remember, it was a bird strike that took out an airplane in America; the pilot had to dive into the river. Bird strikes can explode your engine, depending on how it happens. We should be thankful to God Almighty bird strike hasn’t caused an accident in Nigeria. We are even having animals attacking our aircraft,” Allen further explained.
He, however, insisted that despite the delays and cancellations, flights operated by Air Peace daily put together are more than flights operated by all domestic airlines in Nigeria.
“Because of our capacity and the number of places we operate flights to, you see many people on social media shouting and blaming Air Peace. Sometimes we have thunderstorms and rain, and we are not able to operate flights. This will definitely affect other flights on our schedule.
“Air Peace has zero tolerance for unsafe practices. What we sell to Nigerians is our safety protocols, and we are very proud of this. We’ve not been validated alone by Nigerians. Air Peace has also been validated to be the pride of this nation by one of the most stringent Civil Aviation Authorities all over the world.
“Today, Air Peace is still operating to London. The British and European authorities came here and audited our airline, and we passed in excellent colours. That is why they approved us to come. And over the last one and a half years, Air Peace has proved its ability on international routes.
Read also: Air Peace agrees to honour FCCPC summon over flight refund complaints
“To the admiration of those who gave us that validation, we never cancelled any flight to the UK for one day. The only times we delayed were the times the airport itself called on us, telling us to delay our departures from here because they were doing runway repairs,” the Air Peace chairman said.
Onyema thanked the British authorities for granting it landing rights at Heathrow airport. He also appreciated Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development and President Tinubu for their support for indigenous businesses.
He said that while the airline plans to commence Abuja-Heathrow flight operations from October 26th, they will also keep operating to Gatwick.
He also spoke on plans to resume flight operations into most international destinations that were suspended.
“We stopped going to Dubai because of the visa ban, but the traffic is not like it used to be. So we are studying the route and gathering data on how the traffic is doing. We are, however, in partnership with Emirates now,” he said.
He complained of the stringent visa regime in South Africa, hinting that some of its pilots were being denied visas but will resume soon. He, however, noted that it’s aircraft formally deployed to the route will soon come
He also said Indian flight operations would also resume soon, but lamented that the country refused to grant it landing rights into some destinations in India.
