Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, recently shed light on a concerning trend in the aviation industry: foreign airlines attempting to muscle out Air Peace from international routes.
Sani revealed that these foreign carriers are employing aggressive pricing strategies to undercut Air Peace, ultimately aiming to monopolize key foreign routes.
According to Sani, the tactics employed by these foreign airlines are clear: relentlessly slashing fares until Air Peace is forced out of the competition. T
his move, Sani warns, could lead to a return to the dominance of foreign carriers and their often exorbitant pricing structures.
Taking to social media platform X to express his concerns, Sani called upon fellow Nigerians to throw their support behind local airlines like Air Peace.
He emphasized that by choosing domestic carriers, consumers can effectively counter the efforts of foreign airlines to dominate the market unfairly.
“The reason why foreign airlines are crashing their prices is simply because of Air Peace,” Sani asserted in his online post.
“They will continue to lower their fares until they edge out Air Peace from those foreign routes, and then they will return to their tyranny of prices. The more you patronize our local Airlines, the more you will put them in check.”
The issue came to the forefront in March when Air Peace launched its inaugural flight from Nigeria to London’s Gatwick Airport.
Allen Onyema, the Chairman of Air Peace, sounded the alarm, alleging a coordinated effort among foreign carriers operating on the Nigeria-UK route to oust his airline from international operations through aggressive pricing strategies.
Onyema highlighted what he termed an “unspoken alliance” among these foreign airlines, accusing them of intentionally driving down airfares to push Air Peace out of the market.
Such actions, if left unchecked, could jeopardize the viability of Air Peace’s international operations and limit consumer choice in the aviation sector.
The situation underscores the challenges faced by indigenous airlines striving to compete on a global scale while contending with well-established foreign competitors.
Despite Air Peace’s efforts to expand its reach and provide affordable air travel options for Nigerians, the threat posed by aggressive pricing tactics from foreign carriers looms large.
In response to these developments, stakeholders within the Nigerian aviation industry have called for measures to safeguard the interests of local carriers.
Advocates argue for policies that promote fair competition and protect domestic airlines from predatory practices employed by their foreign counterparts.
As the debate over the future of Air Peace and other Nigerian carriers on international routes continues, the importance of supporting indigenous businesses and fostering a level playing field in the aviation sector remains paramount.
Only through collective action and informed consumer choices can Nigeria’s aviation industry achieve sustainable growth and ensure equitable access to air travel for all.
