The Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Air Peace Airlines, Allen Onyema, has narrated how his airlines suffered what he called both internal and external conspiracies.
Onyema disclosed this on Monday while fielding questions on
Arise Television’s Morning Show programme.
Onyema said ‘his own country’ denied Air Peace and threw
back its application for a Technical Country Operators (TCO) permit, which
could have allowed the airlines to start going into any European country.
He lamented that it took the nation’s leading airlines seven
years to get the designation to go into London.
“You suffer what I call both internal and external
conspiracies. It took us seven years. We got the designation, I think about six
and a half years ago to go into London. Since then, it has been a Cat-and-Mouse
game.
“We actually procured our three 777s because of this route,
not for any other route,… However, we were not allowed to go.
“Whether you like it or not, there is what is called
international aero politics which is very dirty. We applied for the TCO. TCO
means Technical Country Operators permit, you must get that one before you
start going into any European country, UK inclusive. And the TCO organization
from Europe wrote our Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority- Do you know Air Peace?
Do you know about their designation? And we were denied. My own country denied
us, so they threw it back.
“We went back to the NCAA, they said, oh, we didn’t tell
them. Who designated us, the Federal Ministry of Aviation, whose duty it was
and still is to do that. We said okay, we’re ready. They refused, they said
until they allow us to apply. So, we got a designation from the Federal
government, and the NCAA, under the same Federal Government, was telling us
that we should not make any application towards going into the UK.”
Onyema suggested that Nigerian airlines need all the
necessary support they could get from the Federal Government.