MON, JUNE 12 2023-theGBJournal |Air Peace said Monday that they take ”serious exceptions to the Airline’s misrepresentation in public square in response to revelations and claims by former Aviation Minister, Hadi Siriki in a national television Sunday.
Air Peace, vexed by what it described as the ”spurious claims about Air Peace, Nigeria’s foremost airline,” said it deems it absolutely necessary to debunk the ”false assertions” made by Sirika.
”Sirika, in his bid to denigrate Air Peace while praising Ethiopian Airline, stated that we leased ‘two’ Boeing 777 aircraft on a monthly lease fee of $250, 000, parked the aircraft for several months and incurred losses of $19 million while all the aircraft engines and landing gears became due for replacement when we were ready to fly. He went on to ask, ”who does that?”. He stated that Ethiopian Airline would never do that.
This is a blatant lie as we have three and not two Boeing 777 aircraft which were never leased or rented, were purchased outrightly by the airline,” Air Peace said.
The airline dismissed claim that it incurred such a loss, saying, ”We never paid rentals contrary to his lies. The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) can attest to the purchase and ownership of the Aircraft by Air Peace.”
Air Peace management also responded to claim by Sirika that it lacked the capacity to fly to Dubai.
”This is another stark lie,” the airline management retorted.
In response, the airline said it never stopped the Dubai operations because of lack of capacity and explained the suspension of operations to the destination;
”Air Peace Peace commenced operations into the UAE in July, 2019, but in October 2022, the UAE Government announced a total ban on Nigerians.
Neither Emirates nor Air Peace is operating the Nigeria/UAE route since the ban. The persisting non-issuance of visas and the accompanying inconveniences necessitated the suspension of our Dubai operations from November 22, 2022 till date.”
According to the Airline, ”for the former Minister to ascribe the suspension to ”lack of capacity” is not only shocking but also shows how keen he is to disparage an airline which ascendancy, has defied all the commercial odds and hostile environment placed on its path to continue to serve our nation proudly.”
”How could an airline that placed a firm order for 13 brand new E2-195 aircraft, a firm order of 15 Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 10, and over 30 aircraft already in its existing fleet be accused of lacking in capacity,” the airline said.
It also wondered why an airline that stood up for ”the entire nation during the Covid-19 outbreak, and embarked on rescue operations worldwide, evacuating Nigerians from far away China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, UK and South Africa during the Covid-19 lockdowns be accused of lacking in capacity?
”We take serious exceptions to a situation where Air Peace is being misrepresented in the public sphere, causing wrong perceptions about out brand,” it said in a statement signed by its Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mrs Toyin Olajide.
It consequently implored the public to disregard ”these lies told by the former Minister of Aviation against Air Peace during the Arise TV interview.”
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