Nigerian airline, Air Peace, has rejected the claims made by the aviation authorities in the United Arab Emirate, about why the country decided to deny him flight slots in the Middle Eastern country.
The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority on Friday described Air Peace’s request for three slots instead of one it was given at the country’s second-busiest airport, Sharjah Airport, as “unreasonable.” He advised the airline to make up the deficit with flights to any other airport in the country that has available slots.
Previously, Dubai-based Emirates suspended all its flights to Abuja and Lagos after the Nigerian government retaliated against the UAE’s treatment of Air Peace and reduced the Emirate slots from 21 to one.
The matter has threatened diplomatic relations between the two countries, and on Friday the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority said Air Peace pulled out of Sharja airport and should not expect to maintain its frequency of flights there.
“Air Peace initially operated out of Sharja airport, moved to Dubai airport and then returned to Sharjah airport. It would be unreasonable for an airline to expect any airport to keep its slots when they stop operating at that airport, ”he said in a letter to Nigerian Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika.
“In this regard, we wish to inform you that Sharjah airport is currently operating with 140% slots, but with goodwill and tremendous effort on your side, this airport was able to accommodate Air Peace with 1 of the 3 slots requested by this airline.
“The GCAA wishes to emphasize that the action the NCAA is taking is obviously not in line with the spirit of the air services agreements agreed between our two nations. As we both know, the relations between our two sister countries are old, a feature being the recent visit of the Nigerian President to the United Arab Emirates, which certainly ignored the state of these positive relations.
“Finally, we suggest that Air Peace should consider flying its other two flights to any airport in the UAE where space is available. As expected, the GCAA will support Air Peace in this activity, if necessary. “
Air Peace denounced the UAE’s claims and accused its officials of falsehood. The airline, in a letter Saturday, demanded an apology and a retraction.
Read Air Peace’s letter to Nigerian Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika:
December 11, 2021
The Honorable Minister of Aviation,
Senator Hadi Abubakar Sirika,
Ministry of Aviation,
Federal Secretariat, Abuja.
Dear Sir
RE: AIR TRANSPORTATION RELATIONS – THAT LETTER TO YOU FROM THE UAE – A DELIBERATE FALSE
We have been struck by a letter written to you by the UAE Minister of the Economy, who also acts as chair of your GCAA. Said letter is dated December 10, 2021 and refers to GCAA / C / 29-2.
Said letter is now in the public domain and has gone viral, hence our decision to write to you and record the true and irrefutable facts.
Sir, we wish to affirm that Air Peace, as a responsible corporate citizen of Nigeria, has the utmost and unwavering respect for the exalted office of the UAE Minister of Finance and nothing will ever distract you.
However, we take a serious exception to that letter. We believe that the GCAA Minister and Chairman of the Board may have been misinformed about the true position of the issues in the speech, as no one in such an exalted position and office would deliberately reject such a false statement. You have our respects, but your letter has misinformed the public about the real facts against us.
We don’t see how bad Air Peace has done in this whole saga. We are the aggrieved and now they attack us from a room that we least expected.
The facts do not lie.
In aviation, there are things that you cannot lie about. Operating in and out of an airport is one of them. When did such flight operations occur? What slots do we operate? For an airline to carry out scheduled operations inside and outside an airport, there are agreements signed with various parties, executed and implemented. It is necessary for the authority to provide the ground handling company that handled the scheduled operations at Dubai Airport (DXB) for Air Peace.
THE FACTS DO NOT LIE.
Air Peace has only operated flights to Sharjah airport. The letter went further to deliberately damage our perception in the eyes of the unsuspecting public by stating that “it would be unreasonable for an airline to expect any airport to keep their slots when they stop operating at that airport!
FACTS DO NOT LIE.
Sir, Air Peace has never had spaces at Dubai International Airport. The availability of slots was used to deny us operating from that popular airport, as it was our first choice.
It was the policy of non-availability of slots that did not allow us to operate directly at the Dubai airport. The lack of angle of the flight slot forced us to approach Sharjah airport as a last resort. We were received by the government and the people of Sharjah.
While we were denied spaces at its most important airport, Dubai Airport, Emirates has always enjoyed a red carpet treatment in Nigeria, where they received our most important airports: Lagos and Abuja, where a total of 21 weekly flights operate! !
We only requested three weekly flights at Sharjah airport and got the same and started operating on July 5, 2019 until the Covid-19 closures in 2020. Contrary to the letter, Air Peace never stopped operating from the international airport of Sharjah since we started in July 2019.
We only stopped when all other airlines were forced to halt normal scheduled flight operations as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns allowing only evacuation flights.
We did several evacuation flights out of Sharjah. Therefore, we never leave Sharjah airport or at any time “switch” and operate from DXB (Dubai airport). The letter deliberately described us as being non-serious and, at the same time, suggested that we look for other airports in the country to operate from.
ALSO READ: Emirates: UAE Says Air Peace Demand ‘Unreasonable’, Makes New Offer
After the restriction on scheduled flight operations between the UAE and Nigeria was lifted towards the last week of November 2021, we approached Sharjah Airport and the GCAA with a request to allow us to operate a charter in the UAE. United on December 1, 2021.
To our surprise, and despite the lifting of the ban on air operations between the two countries, they refused. They said they would not allow charter but scheduled flights. However, then, following their demand, we announced the resumption of scheduled operations as of that date and we opened our sales to the public. Three days before departure, they still had to approve the flight.
They returned 48 hours before our scheduled departure to the United Arab Emirates, denying us space to operate the flight. When we went ahead, they told us that they would accept us only if we were not carrying a wide-body aircraft, but a small one. We had 250 passengers to transport and using a small plane as suggested was impossible.
His intervention and that of the Presidency were necessary before they approved that we enter on December 1, but not without another unjust order. They told us that we had to land at 9:00 am their time, not before 9:00 am or after 9:00 am. Incredible! In our request to continue scheduled operations after this current flight, we were rejected using lack of space as an excuse.
Meanwhile, Emirates had started operating three daily flights to Nigeria, while Air Peace was totally rejected! You will recall, sir, that you put serious pressure on them urging them to see reasons, but they never increased. Then, in the face of his threat to arrest them if Air Peace was not allowed three meager flights a week, THEY QUICKLY DID THE UNTHINKABLE. THEY GIVEN US ONLY ONE FLIGHT PER WEEK!
They also added that it should be operated only on Thursdays at the time they choose. No one would sponsor an airline that flies only one flight a week to a destination where you have the option of having another airline fly 21 flights a week to the same destination. It is not just about Air Peace, but about our beloved country Nigeria, which has been massively disrespected by these intrigues.
We reiterate that there was never a time when we operated in Sharjah and we stopped, changed to Dubai airport and then returned to Sharjah again as stated in the letter. Honorable Minister Sir, we deserve and demand a retraction and an unreserved apology from the author of that letter.
We do not want to link problems in public space with them, as it is useless for both countries. Therefore, to this end and, due to the fact that this falsehood contained in said letter has painted us in a bad light and has gone viral, despite the fact that the Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates may have been misinformed. For his aides, we still humbly demand a retraction of the offending charge of “stop, change and go back” and an unreserved apology presented to Air Peace.
We thank you for defending our beloved nation.
Sincerely, BY: AIR PEACE LIMITED
Oluwatoyin Olajide
Director of operations