No hurry to quote Air Peace on the stock exchange, says Chairman
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Air Peace, Mr Allen Onyema said on Wednesday that there are immediate plan to hurriedly prepare the airline for listing in the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
He said the ultimate plan was to prepare a solid ground for the airline’s sustainability as a growing concern before preparing it for listing.
The airline said it lost over N1.2 billion in its flight operations into West African countries in the last year.
The loss, he said, accrued because of the hurdles put on the way of the airline by some African countries including Togo, Cote D’ Ivoire and South Africa, which will not give way for Nigerian carriers for fear of competition.
He called on Nigerian government to evolve policies to protect indigenous carriers from the predatory practices of some African countries, which besides not granting approval to operate in their countries subject Air Peace to prohibitive landing and handling airport charges.
He said the airline will not reverse its order of the Boeing 737 – 800 Max aircraft.
Onyema said the aircraft manufacturer invited Air Peace pilot for training on the problems of the aircraft type, which has since been addressed.
He also said the order of the 10 Boeing 737-800 Max will actualise in four year.
He spoke during the inauguration of board members for the airline in Lagos.
Onyema said the sustainability of the carrier was of importance to him than following the bandwagon of hurrying to the stock exchange when the financial health of the airline is on a sound footing.
According to him, the stability of the airline; its growth trajectory and safety record were critical factors to ramp up before rushing to sell shares to interested parties.
He said the decision to inaugurate a board for the airlines was driven by the need to comply with the corporate governance code and get a team of distinguished Nigerians to join the management in running the fastest growing carrier in Africa.
Onyema said unlike many carriers have done in the past, they get the company quoted get some money from sales of shares and after a few years, the business collapses due to poor financial engineering.
Onyema said the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) launched last year was having a negative impact on its operations.
He said the implementation of SAATM is not good for Nigeria as its carriers were subjected to unfair competition and other predatory practices by African and other carriers.
Onyema said the unsavoury experience of Nigerian carriers, including Air Peace in the hands some African governments calls for the need to readdress the principles of single continental market.
He spoke of plans to begin flights very soon into Johannesburg, in South Africa, Sharjah and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Houston in the United State, London and other destinations it was designated to fly into by Federal Government.
Besides expanding flights on its international routes, Onyema said Air Peace will soon extend flights between Katsina / Abuja; Abuja / Katsina; Benin / Port Harcourt; Owerri / Kano and Yola / Kano.
He said: “We are planning flights to connect many cities both internationally, regionally and domestically. Very soon you will see Air Peace aircraft littering the South African and Europen skies.“We are looking at Miami – Lagos – Abuja; Lagos – Kano – Miami and other routes.”