The Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Air Peace Airlines, Allen Onyema has narrated how his airline was frustrated by the Nigerian government for 7 years.
He made the revelation when he spoke about the internal and external conspiracies against his airline in Nigeria.
Onyema disclosed this on Monday while fielding questions on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme.
Onyema said ‘his own country’ denied Air Peace and threw back its application for a Technical Country Operators (TCO) permit, which could have allowed the airlines to start going into any European country.
He lamented that it took the nation’s leading airlines 7 years to get the designation to go into London.
“You suffer what I call both internal and external conspiracies. It took us seven years. We got the designation, I think about six and a half years ago to go into London. Since then, it has been a Cat-and-Mouse game.
“We actually procured our three 777s because of this route, not for any other route,… However, we were not allowed to go.
“Whether you like it or not, there is what is called international aero politics which is very dirty. We applied for the TCO. TCO means Technical Country Operators permit, you must get that one before you start going into any European country, UK inclusive. And the TCO organization from Europe wrote our Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority- Do you know Air Peace? Do you know about their designation? And we were denied. My own country denied us, so they threw it back.
“We went back to the NCAA, they said, oh, we didn’t tell them. Who designated us, the Federal Ministry of Aviation, whose duty it was and still is to do that. We said okay, we’re ready. They refused, they said until they allow us to apply. So, we got a designation from the Federal government, and the NCAA, under the same Federal Government, was telling us that we should not make any application towards going into the UK.”
Onyema noted that Nigerian airlines need all the necessary support they could get from the Federal Government.