Nigeria’s biggest airline, Air Peace says it is the only airline in Nigeria acquiring brand new planes.
Mrs Toyin Olajide, Chief Operating Officer of Air Peace, said this in response to claims made by the Akwa Ibom State Government that its Ibom Airline planes are the only new aeroplanes in the country.
Olajide said that with the purchase of a brand new plane by Air Peace, the aviation industry in Nigeria and globally is aware that Air Peace is the only airline that has acquired brand new aircraft in Nigeria in the past 10 years.
Olajide said that it is public knowledge that Air Peace has made a firm order for 13 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft and that the new aircraft, which Embraer showed to the world when it was in the production line, has begun arriving at the airport.
“The first one came on January 28, the second on March 18, and the third is coming on June 17, 2021. They are flown directly from the manufacturing facility in San Jose, Brazil. We ordered 13 aircraft from Embraer, the manufacturer, who will bring them into the country. I don’t understand the tendency to deceive the public by claiming an aircraft that was leased from another airline is brand new,” the Air Peace COO said.
Amos Akpan, Managing Director of Flight and Logistics Solutions, said that new aircraft usually come straight from the factory with identifiable serial numbers.
“The only aircraft that have been delivered brand new in recent times is the Embraer E195-E2 delivered by Embraer to Air Peace. People saw when the aircraft was being manufactured in the manufacturing line. In any case, if you take the manufactured serial number (MSN) of the aircraft claimed to be delivered brand new, you will see when it was manufactured, the first airline that received the aircraft and so on,” Akpan said.
In addition, a stakeholder noted that while the types of aircraft are now on the market, the aircraft that arrived in Nigeria is not brand new and that records ought to be corrected.
