The situation involving Air Peace's flight operations from the United Kingdom has escalated, with Nigeria's Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, addressing a formal complaint to the UK's Secretary of State for Transport, Louise Haigh. In the letter dated August 1, 2024, Keyamo expressed the Nigerian government's dissatisfaction with the consistent denial of landing slots at London's Heathrow Airport for Air Peace, Nigeria's flagship carrier.
Air Peace currently operates from Gatwick Airport, which is considered a secondary airport compared to Heathrow. The airline has made repeated attempts to secure a slot at Heathrow, a more central and desirable location for its operations, but has been unsuccessful. In response to this continued denial, Keyamo warned that Nigeria might be forced to "reciprocate" by denying British Airways and Virgin Atlantic slots at Lagos and Abuja airports, should Air Peace not be granted access to Heathrow.
“The Airline had made consistent efforts in the past to fly into Heathrow Airport from Lagos, but was denied, and only granted approval to fly into Gatwick Airport from Lagos,” he wrote.
“Following the approval granted 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 up till this moment, the Airline has not received any favourable response from the Slot Office.”
He reminded the UK that both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are operating into Nigeria’s primary airports in Lagos and Abuja “without encumbrances placed in their ways”.
British Airways, in particular, has been flying into Lagos since 1936.
“Therefore, it is necessary for Nigerian designated carriers to enjoy similar reciprocity that British carriers are enjoying. 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 totally betrayed by the British authorities for not reciprocating the good gesture of the Nigerian State and its people,” Keyamo wrote.
“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, which hallmark is based on the principle of 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.
Arising from the foregoing, I wish to emphatically state that if Air Peace is not allocated a slot at the London Heathrow Airport, it might be difficult for British flag carriers to access Nigeria’s tier one airports from the next Winter Season, unless when a frank discussion is opened with us to break the debacle associated with the slot allocation at Heathrow to the Airline and other Nigerian designated airlines.
While expecting your timely intervention over this pressing issue dear to the hearts of Nigerians, please, accept the consideration of my warm regards.”
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