Air Peace Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Allen Onyema, has said the airline subsidised the latest evacuation flight from South Africa due to rising operational costs and limited funding support.
Speaking during an interview with Ojy Okpe on ARISE News on Thursday, Onyema explained that while Air Peace had previously carried out evacuation missions at no cost, current economic pressures in the aviation sector made full subsidy difficult.
Onyema said, “I’ve done about 16 evacuations for this country free of charge, running to several millions.”
He noted that the aviation industry is currently under severe pressure, adding, “You also know that this particular point in time is not good for any airline. That is the truth. The cost of aviation fuel has quadrupled.”
Addressing claims about government funding, he said, “It is not true that I’m taking money from the federal government for myself. What the federal government paid was not up to the cost of those operations. I subsidized it.”
He added, “So it’s not as if it was totally, fully funded like I’m seeing in the papers. That is not the cost. I don’t want to mention it.”
Responding to a question on whether he was referring to the flights that landed on June 11, Onyema said, “Yes… I subsidized it. The President has approved funds for further evacuation.”
He explained that the arrangement was driven by the need to ensure continuity of evacuation operations despite funding gaps and rising industry costs.
He added that the evacuation was partly subsidised by Air Peace due to rising operational costs, while noting that the Federal Government has approved further evacuation funding.
Ademide Adebayo
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