Federal Gov’t Threatens BA, Virgin Over Air Peace Row

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Festus Keyamo has written to his British counterpart to lodge a formal complaint over Air Peace’s flight operations from the United Kingdom.

In a letter dated August 1, 2024, and addressed to Louise Haigh, the UK secretary of state for transport, Keyamo threatened that if Air Peace is not allocated a space at London Heathrow, Nigeria will be forced to “reciprocate” by denying British Airways and Virgin Atlantic slots at the Lagos and Abuja airports.

Air Peace, the Nigerian carrier, currently operates from Gatwick Airport, the secondary airport, even though the UK government has denied access to Heathrow, the UK’s primary airport.

It should be noted that British Airways, in particular, has been flying into Lagos since 1936.

Part of the letter stated that Keyamo expressed the Nigerian government’s displeasure over the consistent denial of a slot by the UK slot office to Air Peace on the Nigeria-London route to fly into Heathrow, its first choice since it began operations in the UK in March 2024.

According to the letter: “The airline had made consistent efforts in the past to fly into Heathrow Airport from Lagos but was denied, and only approved flying into Gatwick Airport from Lagos.

“Following the approval granted to the airline by the Nigerian government to fly the Abuja-London route, the airline approached the slot office for slot allocation at the London Heathrow Airport for flight operations planned to commence in November 2024, during the IATA Winter Season. It is highly disheartening that until now, the Airline has not received any favourable response from the Slot Office.”

He reminded the UK that British Airways and Virgin Atlantic operate into Nigeria’s primary airports in Lagos and Abuja “without encumbrances placed in their ways”.

“Therefore, it is necessary for Nigerian designated carriers to enjoy similar reciprocity to that of British carriers. It is highly unfair on the side of the British authorities and a discredit to the Nigerian authorities and the Nigerian nation as a whole for slot allocation to Nigerian carriers to be an issue at all times. We feel betrayed by the British authorities for not reciprocating the Nigerian State’s and its people’s good gesture,” Keyamo wrote.

He also said, “The slot allocation issue should not be used as an alibi to deny the existence of a Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, whose hallmark is based on reciprocity. Whatever concessionary arrangements you have with your airports with third parties, the concessionaire(s) should legally inherit your existing obligations (especially those under Bi-Lateral Services Agreements) in respect of the use of those airports.”