TheCable

Allen Onyema, chief executive officer of Air Peace, says his company has sold out tickets for the Lagos-London flights until September.

Air Peace, Nigeria’s flag carrier, on March 30, commenced its Lagos-London flight services.

Speaking during an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Onyema said the airline owns over 30 planes and has made orders for 33 additional aircraft.

“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, Air Peace was told by Gatwick Airport to deposit over £2 million before starting 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.