Doyin Okupe, a former spokesperson for the Peter Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organization, made a point on Friday on how Air Peace can weather the competition in airfare with other international carriers.
According to Okupe, Air Peace needs to be brave and strong to fend off pricing rivalry from other carriers that run international routes.
Okupe stated in a post on X that the Nigerian airline had to be ready for a year of non-profit operations.
According to Okupe: “Airpeace can survive the price war. Management must be bold & resilient. Be prepared for non-profit operations for a maximum of 1 year. It costs about $100k per flight with about 350 passengers. About 4k passengers travel to the UK per day. Even with two flights daily, they will need less than 20% of the market.”
Air Peace started operating flights from Nigeria to London in March, with Gatwick Airport serving as the final destination. As a result of the introduction, airfare was cut in half.
When Air Peace started flying from Nigeria to London, other carriers cut their prices.
In response to the incident, Allen Onyema, the Chairman of Air Peace, expressed concern that foreign airlines running the Nigeria-UK route are allegedly plotting to force his carrier out of international operations by driving down fares on the route.
Onyema alleged that there is an “unspoken alliance” among foreign airlines to use lower pricing to eject Air Peace from the Nigeria-London route.
