Air Peace begins commercial flights to Johannesburg
**** As Passengers commended Air Peace on new routes to Johannesburg in less than six hours
By Abisola THOMPSON
Air Peace Airline on Thursday began commercial flights from Lagos to Johannesburg, South Africa.
TBI Africa Correspondent on board reports that the Air Peace P47563 aircraft left Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at 1.25a.m on Thursday to Johannesburg, South Africa.
It arrived in Johannesburg at 8.23a.m local time.
Speaking at a brief ceremony to mark the commencement of the flights in Lagos ahead of the take-off, the Chief Operating Officer, Air Peace, Mrs Oluwatoyin Olajide, assured passengers of exciting journey on the new route.
Olajide said that the inaugural flight to Johannesburg was part of the company’s vision to provide seamless connectivity across cities and countries of the world.
“We are most delighted on this achievement, for launching another route to Johannesburg in South Africa, we are indeed grateful to Almighty God.
“In a time like this, we see Air Peace Airlines expanding and opening new routes, it is indeed a great thing, which shows strength.
“This also shows that we have come to stay, it shows that indeed Air Peace is an airline to reckon with,” she said.
She said that the airline had made huge progress in meeting the stipulated requirements of the aviation authorities in Nigeria and South Africa which actualised the launch of flight operation.
Mr Allen Onyema, Chairman, Air Peace, said the commercial flights to Johannesburg would boost the socio-economic growth of Nigeria and South Africa.
Onyema spoke in an interview with journalists in Lagos before the departure of the flight to Johannesburg.
He said that the operations would also strengthen the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
According to him, the era of saying that Nigerian airlines are pushover is gone forever.
“All we need is the enabling environment to perform, and we are going to perform more than expectations.
” I feel happy today, because Air Peace is trying to ensure that Nigerians fly direct flights to Johannesburg in South Africa in less than six hours.
” This will save passengers from going round the world or Africa countries before getting to Johannesburg.
“It is something we look forward to at greater heights. We promised Nigerians six years ago that we will not only fly cities in Nigeria but also connect other countries of the world.
” Gradually, we are getting there, for us to sustain the tempo, we have to be pragmatic and strategic in our planning, which we have being following,” Onyema said.
Passengers commended Air Peace management’s initiative of launching direct flights on the Johannesburg route.
