Airline Operator Calls for Employment of Indigenous Pilot

Chinedu Eze

The Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema has called for the engagement of indigenous pilots and engineers domestic carriers in order to grow local manpower in the industry.

Onyema stated this when the new airline made history when it decorated one of its young First Officers - Ademulegun Adebayo Jonathan as Captain In Command of Boeing 737 aircraft.

The decoration of the new captain was carried out by Onyema and the chief operating officer of the airline, Toyin Olajide and the pilot was decorated with four bars epaulets.

Speaking at the event Onyema said the decoration is demonstration by Air Peace that it is ready to create room for the growth of young pilots to explore opportunities where competence and excellence are the guiding criteria.

He said Captain Jonathan in the few months he has flown for Air Peace has demonstrated capacity as a young professional the airline is committed to groom for the development of the aviation sector.

Onyema said very soon other First Officers that qualify would be decorated as Captains in command as evidence that Air Peace is committed to the development of professional capacity for young professionals.

He urged the young captain to continue to exhibit those attributes that set him apart even as he urged other pilots to consider Air Peace as an airline that is committed to the development its personnel.

He said he would create opportunity for professionals to grow and contribute their best to the airline irrespective of their ethnic extraction, which is not a factor in recruitment into Air Peace.

Onyema said the airline has recorded many achievements in the few months it started flight operations in the changing aviation landscape.

Onyema said: “In Air Peace, our goal is to reward excellence and contribute our quota to the development of domestic air travel in Nigeria. We have won many awards since we started changing the face of aviation in Nigeria. The decoration today of one of our First Officers, Ademulegun Adebayo Jonathan as Captain in command of our flight is enough proof that we reward diligence, excellence and hard work. In the last few months, this pilot has shown that hard work pays, the reason he is being elevated as first officer into a Captain in command.

This will not be the last; very soon other first officers will be elevated and decorated as captains.

“This is the minimum we can do to reward committed young professionals.

This is good news for us as an airline, because Air Peace has the most experienced pilots in Nigeria. Other pilots are leaving other airlines to join us because we are committed to their welfare. I am very proud of our pilots. I want them to make the difference. We owe this achievement to God, and we are committed to run an airline patterned after the South West Airlines of the United States. We look forward to the day when our staff will share from the profit of this airline as their airline.”

About six vessels laden with petroleum products, especially premium motor spirit (PMS) popularly called fuel are expected at the Lagos port soon.

The arrival of the tankers in the nation’s seaports, particularly the ones situated in Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, Lagos is coming on the heels of worsening fuel scarcity across the country.

This has created untold hardship for the citizenry as the product is being sold far above the official price by black marketers across the country.

However, THISDAY checks revealed that the scarcity has turned out to be brisk business for owners of filling stations. Instead of dispensing the products from all the pumps, they sell from only one or two in the day time and sell to black marketers in the night, who in turn sell at very exorbitant prices to consumers.

This is a clear negation of the assurance of the federal