ISRAEL ONYEKWERE
Air Peace, Nigeria’s flag carrier, started its Lagos-London flight services on Saturday.
The airline announced the development on its X page on Saturday, expressing delight for the milestone.
“London service has commenced and we’re delighted to have achieved yet another feat in our drive to continually provide peaceful connectivity across cities,” Air Peace posted.
“A big thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this launch.”
Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development; and Doris Uzoka-Anita, minister of industry, trade and investment, were present as the airline marked its inaugural flight to London.
The London trip comes a month after the Nigerian flag carrier said it would commence direct flight operations from Lagos to Gatwick Airport in London.
In November 2023, Air Peace had secured a foreign carrier operator permit (FCOP) to fly into the United Kingdom (UK.)
However, the airline could not kick off operations on the route due to challenges with slot allocation at the destination airport.
Prior to this, Keyamo had engaged the UK government to actualise direct flights from Lagos to London.
The minister had also held a meeting with the management of NORSE Atlantic Airways, led by Ben Boiling, its chief executive officer (CEO), in London in late January.
The meeting was to facilitate a partnership between Air Peace and NORSE Atlantic for the operations of the Lagos-London flights.
