Allen Onyema, the CEO of Air Peace, has disclosed that since the airline began its direct flights from Lagos to London a few weeks ago, Gatwick Airport has deliberately frustrated its operations, aiming to impede its activities in the UK recently.
Onyema made this revelation on Tuesday during an exclusive interview on the Channels TV evening program, Politics Today, where he shared insights into his airline’s experience after launching the Lagos-London route.
The CEO of Air Peace has observed that since the airline’s entrance into the Nigeria-UK route, which resulted in lower fares, foreign carriers have been pushing back. He cited recent challenges with ground handling and space allocation at Gatwick Airport as proof of these retaliatory actions.
“On the inaugural flight out of London.“24 hours to the time, they (management of Gatwick Airport) moved us to another checking area other than the place assigned to us.
“The place they gave us, the carousel was not working.
“So, when you are checking people, you need to manually carry the load 50 metres away to drop it somewhere else just to delay you.
“No other airline faced that,” Onyema explained.
Onyema further revealed that on the day Air Peace was reassigned to a terminal with a malfunctioning baggage carousel, it was subsequently observed that the boarding gate in that area had collapsed, adding to the airline’s growing list of frustrations at the London airport.
Onyema delved into the challenges Air Peace faced, recounting instances where, despite completing boarding on time, flights were delayed by an additional 20 minutes because the airport’s management failed to provide ground handlers promptly. He emphasized that while Air Peace consistently departs on schedule from Lagos, it regularly encounters delays at Gatwick Airport.
He suggested that these obstructions might be part of a deliberate strategy to displace Air Peace from Gatwick under the 80/20 slot rule, which mandates that airlines must maintain 80% on-time departure to retain their slots. Failure to meet this standard risks having their slots revoked and given to other airlines.
To combat this, Onyema mentioned that Air Peace is documenting these incidents in a dossier to highlight the deliberate tactics by Gatwick Airport to hinder its operations. This comprehensive record will be presented to the Federal Government to seek intervention and address the injustices faced at Gatwick Airport.
