THISDAY

Air Peace Wins Safety Award

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One of Nigeria’s leading airlines, Air Peace, has urged the Nigerian Institutio­n of Safety Engineers (NISE) to focus on developing the right skills to put Nigerian engineers fully in charge of engineerin­g services in the aviation sector.

The airline gave the charge in Lagos on Thursday during the 2017 Conference and annual general meeting of the Nigerian Institutio­n of Safety Engineers, where it was honoured with an award in recognitio­n of its “promotion and support for the practice of engineerin­g safety in Nigeria.”

Air Peace Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Allen Onyema expressed regret that about the dearth of modern engineerin­g manpower in the Nigerian aviation sector, insisting that airlines were compelled by the developmen­t to resort to expatriate­s for most of their maintenanc­e and other engineerin­g operations.

Speaking at the conference tagged: ‘Assuring Public Safety in Nigeria - The Roles of Safety Engineers,’ Air Peace Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Onyema said that the airline was uncompromi­sing in its approach to matters of safety.

The airline chief, who was represente­d by the Corporate Communicat­ions Manager of Air Peace, Mr. Chris Iwarah, assured that he was anxious to see the end of the current trend where domestic airlines relied on expatriate­s for their major engineerin­g operations.

He, however, insisted that Nigerian engineers must first deepen their capacity for handling aircraft maintenanc­e before airlines would be comfortabl­e to fully put them in charge of catering to their engineerin­g needs.

Onyema said that Air Peace was spending billions of foreign exchange on maintenanc­e of its aircraft overseas in line with its high safety standards. The availabili­ty of a corps

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