Air Peace unfolds post Covid-19 operations strategy, cuts capacity by 60%

NIGERIA’S BIG GEST CARRIER, Air Peace has hinted it is cutting capacity by 60 percent when operations resume after Covid-19.

Allen Onyema, managing director, of Air Peace said during a webinar on aviation sector that few of the airline’s aircraft would be deployed on resumption and that this would lead to a reduction of the number of flights the airline would be operating.

Before the Coronavirus pandemic, Air Peace operated 100 flights deploying about 20 aircraft, but now, Onyema said the airline would be doing only 42 flights after the Covid-19 and would stop in-flight service on domestic route.

“We are going to downsize because the passengers will no longer be there, we are going to deploy four out of the seven Boeing 737 aircraft and six out of the Embraer fleet. Lagos- Abuja is no longer going to be every hour, we are downsizing to about 60 per cent and it is advisable that every airline must operate according to its strength,” Onyema said at the virtual seminar themed, “Survival Strategies for Nigerian Airlines” and organised by Aelex Partners.

“The staff must understand that sacrifices must be made, it may not be total sack because as operation rebounds, you bring them back gradually. Airlines can stagger the payment of debts in agreement with the company they owe and NCAA has to be more proactive,” he said.

The Air Peace boss also envisaged low passengers traffic when flights resumes, attributing it to fear by passengers

He said out of our 13 Boeing 737 on the airline’s fleet, Air Peace would be deploying only four. The airline would also have to ground two of its eight ERJ.

“Passenger figures are not going to be the same again like what it used to be years back; everything has changed, so going into operations, a new set of regulations will emerge. This will also lead to reduction of staff that would be required for the operations,” Onyema noted.

“From 100 flights per day, Air peace is going down to 42 flights. So, going to Abuja will no longer be every hour. So, we are downsizing our operations to almost about 60 percent, we are going to do about 40 percent of our operations and even in that 40 percent, we are not going to carry 40 percent of the passengers we use to carry before,” he said.