AIR Peace’s maiden Lagos-London flight today landed at Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom.
The airline announced the development on its X page on Saturday, expressing delight at the milestone.
“London service has commenced and we’re delighted to have achieved yet another feat in our drive to continually provide peaceful connectivity across cities,” the airline posted.
“A big thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this launch.”
The luxury Boeing 777 aircraft took off at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos at 12:10 am and landed in London a few hours later.
Present at the inaugural flight to London is the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo; and Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anita, among others.
In reaction, Keyamo said that the Federal Government is going to ensure that they support local operators in accessing aircraft lease arrangements like what Air Peace is doing.
The Minister pointed out that Nigeria had been on the blacklist when it comes to dry lease arrangements because of the previous experiences of the lessors.
He said, “Nigeria is on a blacklist to get these dry leases. That is part of what I have been undertaking since I came. I have been trying to assure the world and aircraft manufacturers, like Airbus, that we can protect their assets when they bring them into Nigeria. This is because what they want is whether we can allow them to take these assets when there are breaches of agreements”.
“The problem they always face is that when they bring their assets into the country, and there is a breach sometimes, because of court injunctions and local politics, they can no longer take their aircraft away. It is a huge loss to them. What they want is that they should be able to take these assets away when there is a breach. How do we do this? It is the government that will assure these creditors that please bring in your aircraft.”
The London trip comes a month after the Nigerian flag carrier said it would commence direct flight operations from Lagos to London.
In November 2023, Air Peace secured a foreign carrier operator permit (FCOP) to fly into the United Kingdom (UK).
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