The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has disclosed that the airline chose Gatwick Airport to operate its Lagos-London flight, because the UK authorities declined giving the airline slots at Heathrow airport.
Onyema who spoke on an Arise TV interview on Sunday which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York, explained that after the airline decided on Gatwick when it realised the benefits in choosing the airport, which include the fact that many Nigerians live within that area of London and also the fact that there is less traffic in getting to Central London from Gatwick.
He said the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) signed between UK and Nigeria, was supposed to give Air Peace UK’s primary airport, which is Heathrow, just as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, two of UK’s airlines have slots to fly into Lagos and Abuja airports.
Onyema said Air Peace chose Gatwick after it realised it could be beneficial to the airline’s operations and would also be easier for Nigerian passengers to get to their destinations from the airport and also to connect to other parts of the UK.
“The BASA we signed with the UK is this: you give me your primary airport; we give you our primary airport. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways come to our country using our primary airports, Lagos and Abuja. When we applied, they told us Heathrow was not available to us. They suggested Gatwick and I refused because I wanted Heathrow, which is their primary airport.
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“But after sometime we said okay, as Nigerians are groaning under the weight of high fares; we decided even if it is Scotland; we would go. So, we decided to take Gatwick. Gatwick was not really our choice but in the long run we decided to see some goods in choosing Gatwick.
“Many of our people live down South East part of London and there is heavy traffic into Central London from Heathrow, but at Gatwick, they allotted Southern terminal to Air Peace and when you get to south terminal, you get out of immigration, take your luggage, you walk into the Gatwick express train within three minutes and that will take you to Victoria, right into Central London. From the south terminal you have access to tube, you have access to national rail and you have access to road transport to other parts of UK. So, Gatwick has turned out to even be better for us. That’s why we took Gatwick,” Onyema said.