Air Peace (P4, Lagos) has secured the required permits from the UK Civil Aviation Authority to initiate flights to the United Kingdom, but no launch date has been announced.
A spokesperson for the UK CAA confirmed to ch-aviation that the Nigerian carrier has received both its foreign carrier operator permit and its third country operator permit.
This follows a statement to Nigerian media by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Allen Onyema: "We obtained these permits that qualify us to fly to the UK. Before you obtain these approvals, they will audit you very well. You have to go through a stringent audit, which we passed. We obtained the permit last week".
Onyema has been demanding access to London Heathrow as the UK's primary airport, citing reciprocity principles. The 1988 bilateral air service agreement between the two countries authorises designated Nigerian carriers to fly to London - without specifying an airport - and Manchester International, while designated British carriers are allowed to fly to Abuja and Lagos.
Meanwhile, Air Peace - which recently celebrated its ninth anniversary - on November 1 launched direct flights to Jeddah International in Saudi Arabia from Lagos and Kano, marking its ninth international route. Others include Antigua (Antigua & Barbuda), Mumbai International (India), Johannesburg O.R. Tambo (South Africa), Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia), Dakar Blaise Diagne International (Senegal), Douala (Cameroon), Freetown (Sierra Leone), and Lomé (Togo).
The airline's active fleet consists of fifteen aircraft namely two B737-300s, three B737-500s, one B777-300, three EMB-145LRs, two EMB-145MPs, and four E195-E2s, the ch-aviation fleets shows. It has also wet-leased in two B737-700s from Eznis Airways (MG, Ulaanbaatar) in Mongolia as well as two A320-200s from SmartLynx Airlines Malta (2N, Malta International).
