According to nigerainfranknews-com Air Peace management has said that the airline is loosing over N3bilion on two of its aircraft involved in wing tip accident and another one damaged by the Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited, SAHCOL ground handling equipment recently at the Benin Airport.
In a press briefing in Lagos, the managing director of Air Peace, Barrister Allen Onyema disclosed that AG Waters of London has put the cost of repairs on one of the winglet aircraft at $650, 000, over N250 million plus the cost of repairing the remaining two aircraft plus the number of flight that has been cancelled because of the incidents.
Onyema who was accompanied by the management staff of the airline called on the government to protect domestic airlines staff from unruly passengers who beat them up on any slight delay or cancellation.
He said the airline is having challenges by loosing three aircraft in less than 24 hours and rescheduling of the flights within this short period has been a herculean task.
Onyema said there is no airline that will have this problem within 24 hours that will not face this same challenge or that will even survive.
He said the loss of three aircraft within 24 hours has led to massive disruption of their flights, including the re-arrangements of its flight as 24 flights were affected by the incidents.
He said the affected aircraft may not be back in the next two weeks as the aircraft have to undergo re-certification as the safety of the passengers is paramount to the airline.
Air Peace boss said this development does not warrant the beating of the airline staff by unruly passengers to the extent of stripping the airline Abuja airport manager naked and beating him to stupor.
The airline staff are people’s children, husbands and wives who needs to be protected from unruly passengers while carrying out their duties at the airports, Onyema said.
He stated that there has been clandestine move to demean the airline, but Nigerians have been showing the airline love.
Air Peace boss apologised to the airline passengers for the delays and cancellation within this period.
Onyema assured Nigerians that Air Peace has come to stay no matter the situation, adding that the situation will soon change as the aircraft are receiving attention.
It would be recalled that on Thursday, April 20, 2017, the winglet of one of the aircraft, which was being towed within the very limited space at the ramp of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos to position for departure, had a partial contact with the stabiliser of another of its aircraft.
According to the airline in their recent statement: “We subsequently declared the two aircraft unserviceable in line with our high safety standards.
“We were, therefore, compelled to adjust our schedules to close the gaps created by the two aircraft, which were scheduled to do 14 sectors. While we were trying to salvage the situation, some unruly passengers took the law into their own hands, preventing passengers from boarding and making it impossible for our aircraft to fly. In Abuja, a former number three citizen of this country, whose flight returned to Abuja when it could not land in Enugu due to the closure of the airport at 7 p.m., refused to disembark and incited others to join him in his lawless action. The aircraft was eventually detained overnight in Abuja.
“The action of the former federal lawmaker and other unruly passengers in our different stations worsened the already difficult schedule we were making effort to save. Some flights we were prepared to operate despite the challenge we were facing, were eventually cancelled.
“While we were making effort to resolve the challenge with the decision to commence our operations very early on Friday, a truck operated by SAHCOL rammed into another of our aircraft at the Benin Airport and the aircraft was again declared unserviceable. The aircraft involved in the Benin incident was scheduled to do seven sectors, including our Abuja-Benin service. Given the development, we had no choice than to cancel our Abuja-Benin service and asked those who were willing to reschedule for Saturday to do so, while others should be immediately refunded.
“Some passengers, who were to fly with us from Abuja to Benin, however, went violent. They attacked our staff in Abuja and almost killed our duty manager. It took the intervention of Air Force personnel, who were reportedly called in by the airport authorities, to rescue our duty manager from the mob. But that did not prevent the passengers from destroying our facilities. The menacing passengers also prevented others from boarding their own flights, thereby complicating the situation.
“In Lagos, some other passengers attacked and almost killed our station manager. Also in Calabar, unruly passengers had an unchallenged day, preventing our aircraft from flying. On Sunday, April 16 our staff were also attacked at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.
“It is surprising all these attacks could take place at the nation’s airports, a high security environment, without any challenge whatsoever from security agents. The situation has, therefore, left us with no choice than to resort to our right of self-defence to prevent our staff from being killed.
We can no longer tolerate unruly passengers maiming our staff simply because we have chosen to provide service in a very challenging environment. Security agencies must, therefore, rise to the occasion before our staff, who are also people’s children and parents, are killed. This is the least the government can do to prevent unpatriotic citizens from bringing the few surviving airlines in the country down.”
