Economic Hardship: Air Peace Signs Pact With Chinese Airline

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

There are indications that Nigeria’s leading domestic carrier, Air Peace may have succumbed to the prevailing economic hardship by signing up with a Chinese airline for operational support; ostensibly to be able to remain in business.

Air Peace Chairman, Onyema

However, unlike its culture of effective communication and high premium customer service relationship, the management of Air Peace neglected to prepare the minds of Nigerians for the new deal that is already operational, as passengers were taken aback when confronted with Chinese crew and pilots handling domestic flights before the weekend.

Sharing his experiences with Nigerians, a passenger, Chukwudi Iwuchukwu, who is a public/business analyst narrated how he was confronted with the new development and expressed surprise how such a significant restructuring was carried out without prior public information.

Narrating his experience, the passenger said: “Yesterday, a Chinese air host surprised me by welcoming me on board an Air Peace flight. I was mildly surprised. A Chinese air hostess on a local flight?

“As I was searching for my seat, I noticed that we had another male Chinese air hostess and then a Chinese pilot, so we had three Chinese inside the flight. Immediately I understood what it was, but the person who sat close to me during the flight was muttering under her breath why and what two Chinese air hostesses were doing on a local flight.”

Obviously an informed concerned customer, the passenger volunteered that the arrangement may be one of wet lease, and proceeded to explain the technical and operational details of a wet lease deal.

“Let me break it down for my audience to understand: A wet lease is defined as a leasing arrangement whereby one airline (the lessor) provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) to another airline or other type of business acting as a broker of air travel (the lessee), which pays by hours operated.

“So in this instance, the owner of the aircraft is not Air Peace or Allen Onyema; rather, the aircraft belongs to a Chinese airline company that leased it to Air Peace, and that is why the passengers of the airline saw those Chinese crews during that flight yesterday.

“They are working for the Chinese airline company that owns the aircraft (not Air Peace).  The Chinese airline simply leased the aircraft and the crew to Air Peace, which branded it with the Air Peace logo, sold tickets, and arranged for passengers to board.

“Air Peace has an agreement with the Chinese owners of the aircraft about how much per trip they would pay for using their aircraft for operations. Therefore, it is not the Chinese airline’s business whether the aircraft is full or not; you must pay them according to the terms of the contract for each trip.

“Additionally, the cost of paying the Chinese pilot and the two air hostesses falls on their Chinese employer, not Air Peace Airlines. Air Peace only provides fuel for the journey and refreshment on board; the Chinese airline takes care of the rest”, he said.

The insider professional says other domestic airlines including  United Nigeria Airlines and Ibom Air also have wet lease agreements; further noting that both dry and wet lease agreements are standard operating procedure in the global airline industry.

He says his surprise stemmed from the fact that Air Peace owned by Allen Onyema, is an operator with a history of buying only new aircraft in all the categories, whether Boeing, Airbus, Embraer  and or Bombardier.

Onyema is also a man who takes pride in hiring Nigerians to be his pilots and air hostesses; the sole reason he is the largest employer of labour in the nation’s airline industry.

The concerned Nigerian said, “Observing him reconsider and rethink his business strategy by opting for a wet lease underscored the challenging economic conditions necessitating a reevaluation and adoption of optimal practices to ensure Air Peave’s survival in these turbulent times.”

Experts say the demerit of a wet lease is that Nigeria loses the jobs to foreigners as the pilots and air hostesses of a wet leased aircraft are foreigners, depriving our people who are qualified for the same role of the opportunity to compete and earn a decent living.

More worrisome is that foreign pilots under a wet lease arrangement have been known to have missed their route when still familiarizing our local routes and laws.

Efforts to get the reaction of Air Peace on the development were unsuccessful as Stanley Olisa, its public relations manager, did not pick our reporter’s phone call.

He did not also reply the sms message sent to him on the matter as at the time of publishing.