In the exclusive interview the Chairman and CEO of Air Peace, Dr Allen Onyema, had with Arise TV on Tuesday, he spoke about critical issues concerning the aviation industry, including the reduction of high taxes and charges levied on domestic airlines and expressed the hope that the airlines will meet President Bola Ahmed Tinibu, to table their case of high taxation on his table
Air Peace is the biggest operator in West Africa in terms of fleet and destination both domestic, regional and international flight service. It is known for its reputation on safety and its consistency since it started flight service in 2014.
Air Peace has now been authorized to conduct the much-awaited flight operations connecting Sao Paulo in Brazil, the economic powerhouse of Southern America and the economic powerhouse of Africa, Lagos, Nigeria.
With Toronto, New York, and Guangzhou next on the runway, Allen Onyema is a lawyer turned aviation titan, a commander of the Order of the Niger, and arguably the most consequential private investor in Nigerian aviation history. Nick Udenta brings the excerpts:
Now, you have built the largest airline in West Africa, and you have survived turbulence that has grounded your competitors. But on war in the Middle East at this moment nearly brought the entire industry to a halt. But you kept flying. How does that happen? And what does it tell us about how dangerously exposed Nigeria really is?
Well, thank you very much. But what is happening to Nigerian aviation is global. It’s a global crisis in the aviation industry. It’s not just limited to Nigeria alone. Since the advent of the US-Israel and Iran war, the aviation world has been adversely affected. You could see that airlines have been closing down, shutting down the operations worldwide. Some legacy airlines, some of the biggest airlines in the world, cutting flights, up to 20,000 flights in order to survive because of the rise in cost of Jet A1.
That is the fuel we use for our operations. I remember aviation fuel, before now, the cost of aviation fuel rose by about 30% to 40% from what it used to be. Just because of 30%, airlines are going under abroad.
Many of them are struggling to survive. However, in my country, aviation fuel has gone beyond 250%. At the time, it was about 300%, from 900 Naira to a litre, at the time, at about 3,300.
So, you do the mathematics, and this is what a Nigerian airline is supposed to grapple with. So, you have to actually applaud the resilience of these Nigerian airlines who are just doing real patriotic services to their nation, yet unsung. No Nigerian airline is smiling now.
We have all borrowed and borrowed, and thanks to the banks that believe in the aviation industry, we have all borrowed and borrowed billions just to buy fuel and learn how to fly. You just fly for the fuel vendors. You take off to go to Abuja, fuel used to, maybe used to buy, pay for fuel for about three million on a flight of four million, now it is about 12 million, 13 million for the same flight.
How many people are you carrying? So, when you look at it, the economies of scale, I mean, it doesn’t really favour the Nigerian airline. And mind you, these airlines from the Western world get their funding at 3% to 4%, at most 4% interest rate. Here in Nigeria, we get our funding at about between 29% to 33%.
So, the Nigerian airline is actually dead on arrival. And many of us, including Air Peace, cut down the number of flights we do in order to save costs.
We know that there is the Dangote Refinery, which is the Nigerian saving grace when it comes to, you know, jet fuel, petrol, gas, and all of that. What are they doing to support the aviation industry?
First and foremost, I am a huge fan of that man, Aliko Dangote. I am a huge fan of his because, like I have always said, we should look beyond the man, Aliko Dangote. We should look at what that name represents to the average Nigerian and for our nation. I am ultimately grateful that we have someone like that who has brought to bear a lot in our economy. Dangote doesn’t need anything from anybody any longer. He is not looking to make money for himself.
What does he need again in life? I think everything he is doing now is for the nation. You can imagine what it could have been if there was no Dangote Refinery. In this time of this US-Iran crisis, this country would have been paying for fuel. People would have suffered. So, the refinery has come to the rescue of this nation and, in fact, the world. Not only Nigeria, because he is exporting too.
This is a man that has provided over 500,000 jobs in the country. You cannot joke with that. I respect him.
I want to emulate him. He is my idol, to be honest with you. I am coming to aviation fuel.
The problem is not Aliko Dangote. The Dangote’s fuel still remains, through MRS, still remains the cheapest. But it’s the chain, the middle man in between.
Somebody will lift from Dangote and comes out, sells to another person, another person, sells to another person, another person. Before he comes to the airline, he becomes something else. This is what is happening.
Could there be more support for the Dangote Refinery?
First of all, you have to find out from Dangote himself. His challenges. Is he getting crude from Nigeria, directly from Nigeria? Or he is buying it from agents abroad who the past government sold? I think we heard that the crude had already been sold.
Even this present government inherited what was done in the past. So, is Dangote buying this crude directly from NNPC or from the Nigerian government? Or is he buying it from those, the crude that he sold to? That is left for you to find out. You understand what the guy is going through.
But how are you managing? Because last week, IATA said, and I quote, that the toughest place to open an airline today is either Afghanistan or Nigeria. Afghanistan, because it is a disaster. And Nigeria, because it is unbelievably expensive to operate with 54 taxes. Fees and charges spread across four major government agencies in the aviation industry. Now, when the world’s most powerful aviation body stands on a global stage and compares your operating environment to a war zone, what does that tell us? And what is your message to the Nigerian government today?
That comment was not complimentary of anybody in this country; it was not complimentary at all. But we welcome it because over the years, airlines in Nigeria have been crying to governments over time.
The problem we have in Nigeria is that since the deregulation of the airline industry in the 80s, early 80s, people have come to look at as airline owners as, oh, they are making money. If I make business easy for him, this man will make more money. No, aviation is a catalyst of national strategic importance.
There is no UAE without Etihad and Emirates. They might not be making money for themselves, but they are doing other things that are engineering the ecosystem to make money for the country. That is what they are doing.
Every country does that. They support the airlines. During COVID-19, America doled out billions of dollars to their airlines. Maybe the least got about, some got $5 billion just to help them to recover. The entire 34 airlines in Nigeria, we were given 4 billion naira. That is less than $2 million, all the airlines in Nigeria.
Some airlines got 8 million naira only. Tell me what you’re going to do with that. Over 70 airlines have come and gone in this country. Nigeria has the highest mortality rate of airlines worldwide. That is not complimentary. And we keep on complaining. We keep on complaining and nobody is listening to us. Thanks to this government that at least has come in to do this Cape Town thing (Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo successfully implemented key reforms to domesticate the Cape Town Convention, significantly boosting Nigeria’s global aviation compliance rating). The government is trying to establish a leasing company now.
Thanks to President Tinubu and Festus Keyamo. The man is working around the clock to make that happen. Maybe that will help us also.
But the way it is now, if those charges are not reviewed, airlines will continue to crumble in this country. Look at ICAO the regulator of civil aviation worldwide, The International Civil Aviation Organization rules that aviation agencies must engage on cost recovery for their services. You don’t use airlines per se to raise revenue for the nation. Airlines are not used to raise revenue directly.
But indirectly, they energize the ecosystem for government to make money through tourism, economic integration, and so many other things. Airlines bring those things to bear indirectly. But taxing airlines directly to raise revenue for government is something very, very, very bad.
Time has come, and I believe this government will listen; we are seeking an appointment with the President. And we think the president should see us and hear from us.
We are patriotic citizens of this country. We appreciate what this government has done for us. But they need to listen more to us and get to know the pains, the pain points that are hitting these airlines.
If an airline goes down, banks will take a hit. And it creates massive job unemployment. A lot of people will be thrown into the unemployment market.
And of course, you don’t know who will be the next armed robber, next suicide bomber, the next kidnapper. And you will be promoting insecurity the other way. We need to sit down with Mr. President and tell him face to face.
We don’t want anybody to go between us and him. We want to sit with our minister, who is very progressive, sit down with him, sit down with the president and tell him the honest truth.
What is the truth?
The truth we have to tell the president is that the 5% passenger TSC, they charge the airlines. And they will tell you that, oh, it is the passengers that pay it. We refuse to accept that. If I charge 100,000, NCAA will take 5%. If I charge 200,000, NCAA will take 5% of200,000. I did not set up business with you. Because aviation itself does not give you 5% gain. But they tell you, oh, it is the passengers that pay it. No, then take it from the passengers.
We want Mr. President to set up Aviation Taxes and Charges Review Committee. It is very important so that it does not look as if we are trying to fool the government. Let the government select people, technocrats, people from aviation, and then some of us from the airline industry, raise a committee of Aviation Taxes and Charges, I mean, review committee to look into these charges that airlines have been crying over time to be responsible for the demise of airlines in this country.
Recently, one of Nigeria’s most successful actresses, Funke Akindele, took to socialmedia. She went on X to criticise Air Peace. But Air peace responded. You said that this incident was caused by a bed strike. But you know, the anger online at the moment was about poor communication. She had come out with her statement before Air Peace came out with the bed strike statement. I would like for you to tell us what really happened there, because I believe this is the first time you’re speaking to a media house after that incident occurred.
Well, I don’t want to join issues with our customers. We love our customers and we don’t want to seem as if we are joining issues with them. They say customer is always right. Customer is always right.
I want to take it from that angle that I never gave any statement. But I mean, however, what am I going to say? When the custodian of aviation in Nigeria has spoken on that particular issue, that is the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Was there a bird strike? Yes. Did the pilot, the captain himself, come out from the cockpit to announce the incident? Yes. I don’t know the communication we are talking about. When the pilot addressed passengers himself, when it comes to safety, Air Peace takes no prisoners, no amount of intimidation, no amount of name calling.
Air Peace will never take to the sky with an issue of 1%. We don’t care what name we are called. And that is going for us.
Aviation is a small world. Everybody knows who is who in aviation. You don’t tell lies in aviation. It will be in your face. The issue of hotel, you cannot undertake to do international operations without having one. No country will give you the permit to land in a country without you first, providing evidence of a hotel where you must have paid upfront. The hotel will only be drawing from the money you’ve paid in case of disruption. It is one of the cardinal requirements.
It is not something you can avoid. And the hotel in question is a five-star hotel that Air Peace has in London. London Gatwick, right there at the airport.
And you lodged your passengers there?
Oh, we had lodged them there. The passengers on that flight? Yes, London Hilton Hotel. They were all lodged there.
Except you say you don’t want to go in there. So, if some people were waiting for their luggage, remember the airport authority has already said that you can’t take the luggage immediately. Because you know in London, flights land every minute.
So, it would be done at a time they have a window of where to discharge your luggage. We are not talking about Lagos or Lagos-Akure flight here. Where you stand by the side if the flight is cancelled.
In fact, you sit by the aircraft cargo hold and collect your luggage. No, these are international operations. Not even my staff has access. Not every staff of Air Peace in Heathrow or Gatwick has access to the airside. We have operated for two years now, only two people were given access to the airside. And the airport authorities have stated that you have to have a window on when they will bring out this luggage.
That window will be when flights reduce. Because the same carousel that are landing luggage, we are going to use, you stand behind wanting to collect your luggage on the spot while some other people are going to the hotel. So, I don’t know what Air Peace had done wrong there.
It is not true that we didn’t put people in the hotel. People were put in the hotel. People were accommodated in a five-star hotel for that matter.
That video was highly unfortunate. So, you cannot use the way we behave over here. You shout everywhere we go and think that that is where things are done.
But let me tell you this. Fortunately, and unfortunately, Nigerians behave themselves when it comes to foreign airlines. The same Friday, this thing happened. An airline from the United States kept Nigerians here for two days. No hotel, no anything. Nobody did any video.
A foreign airline in Nigeria?
A foreign airline.
You care to share?
No, I don’t have to name them. You know, you Google it, you will see it.
Nobody said a word. They went home, no video. Four days later, another airline from America took off from somewhere in America, four hours into the Atlantic Ocean. People saw it, had a technical problem, did another four hours back to their base with Nigerians on board, flying for 8 hours of uncertainty. Nobody did a video. ‘They nearly killed us today. Hey, pastor, pastor. What you said has happened.
Once it is a Nigerian airline, this is what you will be hearing. A Nigerian airline pilot sees ordinary light, maybe a cargo door showing that it was not properly closed he is taxiing to go and take off. And he says, oh, we need to turn back and close it well. We saw a light. We need to address it before we take off. Everybody will get up from that aircraft.
Some passengers will be banging on the body of the aircraft. ‘Hey, look at the rickety airline. Old plane you are using, God will punish you’. They start shouting. Then somebody will start calling, pastor, pastor. That thing you said has happened. We nearly crashed today.
All sorts of emotions. That is unfair to the Nigerian brand. And when it comes to safety, we don’t even need Nigeria’s validation. We got our validation from stringent authorities. Somebody had actually done a video that Air Peace nearly killed them, that Air Peace was going to land in Asaba. He couldn’t land in Asaba and spent four hours in the air because it had no fuel.
Tell me what he was using to stay for four hours. And all sorts of videos are coming out from anywhere. Recently, somebody was trolling Air Peace. Anybody that wanted to make name or create content does so at the expense of a brand. You know, that kind of thing. But it is not funny. Let me tell you, there is cyberbullying, when you deliberately badmouth a brand, that is cyberbullying, it is a crime.
And we have decided as an entity that we will take it no more. We welcome constructive criticism. If you criticize us constructively, that is the feedback for us to improve.
We are not perfect. However, you cannot peddle falsehood against Air Peace and go scot-free any longer.
So, you are going after these people?
Oh, we have got some people now. They are cooling off somewhere. We are caught with them on criminal charges, both criminal and civil charges. You can’t let go. Because when you damage a brand, it is not Allen Onyema you are damaging. You are damaging the opportunities the airline is creating for the teeming masses of unemployed people of this country.
But can you deny that there are no flight delays with Air Peace?
Nobody can deny that. I have told you, there are delays not caused by us. Something must have necessitated the delays and every airline delays flights. And let me tell you something, when other airlines delay, you won’t hear anything. Both foreign and domestic ones.
When it is Air Peace, it is as if people are waiting to hound it, but I don’t know what is responsible for it. However, you don’t compare an airline that is doing about 100 flights a day to the one that is doing 10, 20, 30, 40. It is not the same.
They should give it to Air Peace that this airline, we started in 2014. By 2015, our capacity, our equipment has increased tremendously and we started doing hundreds of flights. Till date, no accident.
We should thank God for this airline that has intervened for Nigeria and stop badmouthing or cooking up things to make it look so bad or whatever. I am not saying we have not disappointed, but of course, sometimes, even our staff, they misbehave sometimes. About 97% of the time, the reasons for delays and cancellations are not due to no fault of any airline.
You mentioned something Nigerians will always remember you for, your service to the nation. In 2019, when the xenophobic attacks targeted Nigerians in South Africa, you personally funded the evacuation of over 500 Nigerians from South Africa at that time, free of charge, no government invoices, no commitment from the federal government. There were no conditions. And you were greeted on the tarmac with hugs and tears. I personally remember that moment. And I am sure a lot of Nigerians remember that moment. And we are very thankful to you for that singular act back in 2019. Now, seven years later, history has repeated itself in South Africa. But this time, Air Peace is now operating on a government-funded repatriation, not for free. And for Nigerians watching at this point, they are asking, why did you do it for free at that time? And why not this time?
Thank you very much. I felt the government of South Africa backed their people to do what they were doing then to our people. For love of country, I could not take it. All my life, I have actually lived for this nation. I love this nation and its people. I believe in that saying, think of what you can do for your nation and what the nation can do for you. It is not about money. You can’t go to your grave with your money, with your billions.
You can’t. It is the legacy you leave behind. Yes, I cried when they arrived because of what one woman was saying. The woman was praying for me from afar. When I entered there, the woman was from the North. She said, my prayer is for this country to be one.
You are an Igbo man and you came. So, Nigerians became one. Remember when they got to Oliver Tambo airport, it dawned on South Africans that evacuation was never a good thing for any country. So, they tried to stop them by threatening them that if you want to go, we will stamp your passport for 10 years.
You will never be able to come back. They said, we are going. Stay in your country.
Stocks in South Africa fell. I am a non-violence practitioner. What I did was a non-violence action that could bring down any powerful entity and that made the stocks in South Africa flat. Yes, I did it free of charge. Some people say, oh, he may be doing it for publicity. Go and do your own for publicity.
Go and spend your hard-earned money for publicity. Which publicity do I need again? But it is for love of country. I do it to encourage Nigerians to love their country, to stop chasing wealth, wealth, wealth, and wealth.
On the eve of the 1976 Olympics, Nigeria led a boycott of all African countries. About 42 African countries followed Nigeria to boycott the Olympics of 1976. These Nigerians, very young people, 17 years, 20 years, had trained for four years preparatory to that Olympics.
Those people would have been made in life. Our football team, the Green Eagles, that qualified to represent Africa also, beats even Canada in the warm-up matches, 3-0. They beat England.
They would have won gold in 1976 and they could have become stars signed by professional teams and all that. But Nigeria led a boycott.
Nigeria’s foreign minister, Bianca Ojukwu, hinted that there might be repercussions to these xenophobic attacks against Nigerians. Do you agree?
I totally agree that there should be a stop to foolishness. Every time they do this and they get the support of their government, I don’t understand how all of a sudden South Africa lacked police force, lacked the military, lacked every security agency that could have stopped these people. How do you explain where people would march into somebody’s house, bring you out, question you, can I see your papers? You are a foreigner, you have to go back home.
You have to go back home. What have they done? The shops they are running, what kind of employment did you provide for him to run a shop? He brought money from Nigeria and opened a shop in your country to help your country and help you. The best you could have done is to learn from these Nigerians acquire some entrepreneurial skills.
These people are very lazy and themselves and their government try to blame others for their woes and foolishness. This is happening. The Nigerian government, in fact, I support Adams Oshiomhole who says that we should retaliate. But the kind of retaliation I want is what we are doing. Let us do non-violence retaliation. I don’t want Nigerians to go to the streets and attack any South Africans. We love foreigners. Nigerians are not like that. That is not the kind of retaliation I want.
I don’t want Nigeria to close down MTN or other places. Nigerians have shares in those companies? I don’t want Nigeria because after all, those people are employing Nigerians too. I don’t want that.
The kind of retaliation I want is for Nigerians to boycott South Africa. You know what it means? Boycott South Africa. Don’t invest in that country.
If they want to invest in our country, let them bring their money and invest. And you determine how they take the money back. That is non-violence action.
Boycott South Africa. If you decide to go against me, the only thing I can do to you is to withdraw my support to you. I don’t have to support you to use it to finish me.
So that is the kind of retaliation I want and it is most powerful.
I’d like to thank you very much for joining me on the program. You have done well in making Nigeria proud.
Thank you very much. I appreciate the time we spent here talking about Nigeria, my nation. Thank you.
