Air Peace Airlines has announced that when it launches its London route, it will provide special student tickets that are affordable to students travelling to study.
Business Day reported that the chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, made this revelation on Thursday during the airline travel agents meeting for the London launch held at the Sheraton Hotel in Lagos.
The special student fares, according to Onyema, will make it simple and inexpensive for students to travel during breaks and the time before classes resume. She urged travel agencies to oversee the fares to prevent passengers from abusing them.
Onyema added that all his children attended schools abroad, and he insisted that they come back to Nigeria, no matter how brief, during the school breaks. “This will help us stay in touch with our kids and make sure they uphold our culture and I am aware that many other parents have same wish, but the high price of transport has prevented them from fulfilling it.
“This narrative will changed as soon as Air Peace resumes flights to London,” the chairman assured.
Onyema claims, he founded the Air Peace London route because he loves Nigeria and wants to abolish the exorbitant airfares that exist between Nigeria and London.
He added that “This was about providing Nigerians with the finest choice and caving in to their desires. My goal in founding Air Peace was to employ Nigerians,” he declared.
In addition, he pledged to unify travel agent commissions.
Onyema promised that the fares would be less expensive than those charged by legacy airlines, but he did not disclose the exact cost of Air Peace’s London route.
The most affordable economy class return ticket from Nigeria to London is presently about N1.6 million naira.
The foreign currency rate has resulted in international airlines’ funds becoming stranded in Nigeria, which has led to a 400% increase in air rates in the previous two years.
To enable the free float of the naira currency rate, the CBN has instructed banks to lift the ceiling on the investors and exporters’ window of the front market.
After years of maintaining a rigid peg that alarmed investors and syphoned off cash from the economy, Nigeria formally floated the naira last year.
Recall that for the last two years, cheap ticket stocks have been prohibited by airlines, allowing high inventories to be sold only in naira. On the websites of the majority of airlines, low ticket inventories may only be purchased using dollar cards.
Speaking at the event, the chairman of the Airlines and Passengers’ Joint Committee of the International Air Transport Association, said that the idea of an Air Peace London flight is a good one, particularly since Nigeria will now have its own carrier, resulting in a balanced trade environment.
The London route is significant to Air Peace for a number of reasons, foremost among them being that it signifies the airline’s historic entry into the European Union, according to the chief operational officer of Air Peace, Oluwatoyin Olajide, who spoke at the ceremony.
Olajide stated that the airline’s Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner, two of the most advanced and effective aircraft in the sky, will be used to conduct the service.
She said that this service, which will be available every day, will also provide a number of additional advantages that set Air Peace apart from the competitors.