Nigeria-UAE Diplomatic Row: Air Peace Accuses UAE of Falsity

The diplomatic row between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) got messier over the weekend as Air Peace airline allegedly accused the Emirates of falsity that it lost its flight slots at the Sharjah International Airport because it stopped operating commercial flights into the airport.

The Management of Air Peace had described the claim by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that it operates from another airport other than Sharjah International Airport as falsehood calculated to damage its brand.

The airline which said this in a letter written to the Ministry of Aviation and addressed to Senator Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation on Saturday, said it takes very serious exception to that letter.

Air Peace said it believes that the Minister and the Chairman of the Board of UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) may have been misinformed of the true position of the issues in discourse as no one in such an exalted position and office would deliberately push out such untrue statement.

Air Peace said that contrary to what the GCAA claims in its letter, it never ceased operating from Sharjah International Airport since it started in July 2019. It said it only stopped when every other airline was forced to stop normal scheduled flight operations as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns that permitted only evacuation flights.

“We did several evacuation flights out of Sharjah. So, we never left Sharjah Airport nor did we at any time “shifted” and operated out of DXB (Dubai Airport). The letter deliberately painted us as unserious while at the same time, suggesting that we look for other airports in the country to operate from,” Air Peace said.

“After the restriction of scheduled flight operations between UAE and Nigeria was lifted towards the last week in November 2021, we approached the Sharjah Airport and GCAA with a request to allow us to operate a charter into the UAE on December 01, 2021.

“To our surprise and, despite the lifting of the ban on flight operations between both countries, they refused. They said they would not allow charter but scheduled flight operations.

“However, we then, in obedience to their demand, announced resumption of scheduled operations beginning from that date and we opened our sales to the public.”

According to Air Peace, three days to departure, the GCAA was yet to approve flights and came back 48hours to deny them of slots to operate flights. They were later told that Air Peace would only be accepted if only it brought a small aircraft.

“On our request to continue with the scheduled operations after this present flight, we were turned down using lack of slot as excuse. Meanwhile, Emirates had started operating three flights daily into Nigeria while Air Peace was totally turned down!”

Air Peace said the one slot was only given to them after the NCAA had made threats to withdraw Emirates Airlines ministerial approval.

“Then, at your threat of going to stop them if Air Peace was not allowed a meagre three flights weekly, THEY QUICKLY DID THE UNTHINKABLE. THEY GAVE US ONE FLIGHT ONLY PER WEEK! They also added that it must be operated only on Thursdays at a time that they chose themselves,” the airline said.

While reiterating that at no time did it stop operating in Sharjah and moved to Dubai airport, Air Peace has demanded a retraction an unreserved apology from the GCAA.

“To this end therefore and, for the fact that this falsehood contained in the said letter has painted us in bad light and gone viral, even though the UAE Minister of Economy may have been misinformed by his aides, we, still, and humbly demand a retraction of the offending accusation of “stopping, shifting and returning” and an unreserved apology tendered to Air Peace,” it added.

Meanwhile, the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has reacted to Nigeria’s withdrawal of ministerial approval granted to Emirates Airlines with respect to its Winter flight schedule from Nigeria

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Economy, Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, had in a letter to Sirika dated December 10, defended its decision to reduce flight schedule of Air Peace from three to one, saying it is unreasonable for the country to retain the airline’s slots at the Sharjah International Airport.

Al Marri, who doubles as the chairman of the General Civil Aviation Authority in the UAE, had in the letter described as unjust, the decision of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to withdraw its approval for Emirates Airline winter schedule, cutting down the carrier’s daily passenger flights from 21 to just once a week.

The letter said, “The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents its compliments to the Federal Ministry of Aviation (FMA) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and has the honour to refer to the letter Ref. No. NCAA/DG/AIR/11/16/329 dated 9th December 2021, whereby the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) notified the Country Manager, Emirates Airline (EK) in Nigeria regarding the withdrawal of the ministerial approval granted to that airline with respect to their Winter Schedule. The NCAA further advised EK that this withdrawal becomes effective on Sunday 12th December 2021 at 2300Z and hence, EK “is granted approval to operate only one weekly passenger frequency to Abuja on Thursdays”.

“The GCAA has the honour to highlight that such a decision by the NCAA is totally unjustified especially, as it has come to our attention that their action is being taken against the background of Air Peace not securing all 3 slots at Sharjah Airport which they desire. (Air Peace initially operated at Sharjah Airport, shifted to Dubai Airport and then returned to Sharjah airport. It would be unreasonable for an airline to expect any airport to maintain their slots when they ceased operating at that airport.) In this regard, we wish to kindly advise you. that Sharjah Airport is currently operating at 140% slot capacity, but with goodwill and tremendous effort on their Side, this Airport was able to accommodate Air Peace with 1 of the 3 slots that this airline requested.

“The GCAA wishes to stress that the action being taken by the NCAA is obviously not in line with the spirit of the agreed air services arrangements between our two Nations. As we are both aware, the relations between our two brotherly countries are vintage in nature, one hallmark being the recent visit of the President of Nigeria to the UAE, which certainly mirrored the status of these positive relations.

“Finally, we suggest that Air Peace should consider flying their two other flights to any UAE airport at which there are available slots. As expected, the GCAA will support Air Peace in this activity, where required.

“Your Excellency, your kind support is anticipated so that the NCAA reviews their decision and restores the approval of the Emirates Airline Winter Schedule, as filed. In this regard, we wish to reiterate that this is a purely operational matter between Air Peace and Sharjah Airport and in any case it should have absolutely no implications for Emirates Airline.”

The Nigerian Government had on Thursday, in a letter through the NCAA Director-General, Musa Nuhu, whittled the daily flights of Emirates Airlines to just one per week.

Nigeria had about a week ago lifted the ban on Emirates Airline’s flights to Nigeria after suspending the carrier from operating into Nigeria for several months earlier, due to concerns over UAE carrier’s requirements in the management of COVID-19.

Nuhu had stated that following the lifting of the ban, the UAE-based airline applied to the Federal Ministry of Aviation for approval of its winter flight schedule, consisting of 21 weekly passenger flight frequencies to Nigeria, noting that Nigeria approved the schedule in the spirit and intent of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement between both countries.

He, however, expressed dissatisfaction that Air Peace Airlines, the only Nigerian airline that operates passenger flights to Sharjah International Airport in UAE, requested three weekly passenger flight frequencies but was granted only one weekly passenger flight frequency.

The action of UAE authorities prompted the decision to also whittle down Emirates flight into the country to one per week, a move that was hailed by industry stakeholders.

Nuhu explained to aviation correspondents in Lagos on Friday that the government decided to respond to the way UAE treated Air Peace, saying that it is the responsibility of government to protect Nigerian businesses.

But in reaction to Nigeria government’s decision, Emirates Airlines announced that it is suspending operations to the country till further notice.

Emirates on its website yesterday announced that it would suspend its flights to Nigeria from December 13, 2021 until the two countries reach an amicable resolution on the matter.

The statement said, “With the recently imposed directive limiting Emirates to operate one flight per week to Nigeria via Abuja, Emirates will be suspending its flights between Nigeria and Dubai from 13 December 2021, until the UAE and Nigerian authorities work on a solution to the ongoing issue.

“The last flights to operate on 12 December 2021are EK 783/784 to/from Lagos and EK 785/786 to/from Abuja.

“Customers holding tickets with the final destinations Lagos and Abuja will not be accepted at the point of origin,” it stated.

The airline also said that affected customers do not need to call Emirates immediately for rebooking, adding that customers can simply hold on to their Emirates ticket and when flights resume, get in touch with their travel agent or booking office to make new travel plans and expressed regrets what this may have caused its customers in Nigeria.

“Emirates is committed to its operations in Nigeria, and we stand ready to reinstate services once restrictions are lifted by the Nigerian authorities, ensuring travellers have more choice and access to trade and tourism opportunities in Dubai, and beyond to our network of over 120 destinations,” the airline added.

Currently, over 25 foreign airlines operate flights into Nigeria; some daily, from multiple destinations. While only one Nigerian airline operates internationally, one or two others operate on regional routes.

Nigeria currently has signed BASAs with over 90 countries including the UAE. However, over the years, stakeholders have lamented that most air agreements between Nigeria and other countries have been one-sided as Nigerian airlines have been unable to reciprocate the agreements due to what they termed, “aero-politics”.

Air Peace letter to the Honourable Minister of Aviation reads:

Sen. Hadi Abubakar Sirika,

Ministry of Aviation,

Federal Secretariat, Abuja.

Dear Sir

RE: AIR TRANSPORT RELATIONS – THAT LETTER TO YOU FROM UAE – A DELIBERATE FALSEHOOD

Our attention has been drawn to a letter written to you by the UAE Minister of Economy who also doubles as the Chairman of their GCAA. The said letter is dated December 10, 2021and referenced GCAA/C/29-2.

The said letter is now in the public domain and has gone viral hence our decision to write you and place the true and unassailable facts on record.

Sir, we wish to state that Air Peace, as a responsible corporate citizen of Nigeria, has utmost and unflinching respect for the exalted office of the UAE Minister of Economy and nothing will ever distract from that.

However, we take very serious exception to that letter. We believe that the Minister and the Chairman of the Board of the GCAA may have been misinformed of the true position of the issues in discourse as no one in such an exalted position and office would deliberately push out such untrue statement. He has our respects, but his letter has misinformed the public about the real facts against us.

We do not see what wrong Air Peace has done in this whole saga. We are the ones being wronged and now we are being attacked from a quarter we least expected.

Facts don’t lie.

In aviation, there are things one cannot lie about. Operating into and out of an airport is one of them. When did such flight operations occur? Which slot did we operate? For an airline to conduct scheduled operations into and out of an airport, there are agreements signed with several parties, executed, and implemented. There is need for the authority to provide the Ground Handling Company that handled the scheduled operations in Dubai Airport (DXB) for Air Peace.

FACTS DON’T LIE.

Air Peace has only operated flights into Sharjah Airport alone. The letter went further to deliberately damage our perception in the eyes of the unsuspecting public by stating “it would be unreasonable for an airline to expect any airport to maintain their slots when they ceased operating at that airport”!

FACTS DONT LIE.

Sir, Air Peace has never been given slots at the Dubai International Airport. Slot availability was used to deny us operating from that popular airport as it was our first choice.

It was the politics of slot unavailability that did not allow us to operate into Dubai Airport directly. The lack of flight slot angle forced us to approach the Sharjah Airport as a last resort. We were welcomed by the government and people of Sharjah.

While we were denied slots in their most important airport, the Dubai Airport, Emirates has always enjoyed red carpet treatment in Nigeria where they were given our most important airports- Lagos and Abuja where they operate a total of 21 flights weekly!

We only asked for three flights weekly at the Sharjah Airport and we got same and started operations on the 5th of July, 2019 until Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020. Contrary to the letter, Air Peace never ceased operating from Sharjah International Airport since we started in July 2019.

We only stopped when every other airline was forced to stop normal scheduled flight operations as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns that permitted only evacuation flights.

We did several evacuation flights out of Sharjah. So, we never left Sharjah Airport nor did we at any time “shifted” and operated out of DXB (Dubai Airport). The letter deliberately painted us as unserious while at the same time, suggesting that we look for other airports in the country to operate from.

After the restriction of scheduled flight operations between UAE and Nigeria was lifted towards the last week in November 2021, we approached the Sharjah Airport and GCAA with a request to allow us to operate a charter into the UAE on December 01, 2021.

To our surprise and, despite the lifting of the ban on flight operations between both countries, they refused. They said they would not allow charter but scheduled flight operations. However, we then, in obedience to their demand, announced resumption of scheduled operations beginning from that date and we opened our sales to the public. Three days to departure, they were yet to approve the flight.

They came back 48hours to our expected departure to UAE denying us slot to operate the flight. When we pressed on, they told us that they would accept us only if we did not bring a wide body aircraft but a small one. We had 250 passengers to transport and using a small aircraft as they suggested was impossible.

It took your intervention and that of the Presidency before they approved that we come in on the said December 1st but not without another unfair order. We were told that we must land at 9.00am their time, not before 9.00am and not after 9.00am. Unbelievable! On our request to continue with the scheduled operations after this present flight, we were turned down using lack of slot as excuse.

Meanwhile, Emirates had started operating three flights daily into Nigeria while Air Peace was totally turned down! You would recall Sir, that you mounted serious pressures on them urging them to see reasons, but they never bulged. Then, at your threat of going to stop them if Air Peace was not allowed a meagre three flights weekly, THEY QUICKLY DID THE UNTHINKABLE. THEY GAVE US ONE FLIGHT ONLY PER WEEK!

They also added that it must be operated only on Thursdays at a time that they chose themselves. No one would patronise an airline doing only one flight a week to a destination where one has the option of another airline doing 21 flights a week to the same destination. This is not about Air Peace alone but about our dear country Nigeria that has been massively disrespected by these intrigues.

We reiterate that there was never a time did we ever operate at Sharjah and stopped, shifted to Dubai Airport, then returned to Sharjah again as the letter stated. Honourable Minister Sir, we deserve and demand a retraction and an unreserved apology from the author of that letter.

We do not want to join issues in the public space with them as it is unhelpful to both countries. To this end therefore and, for the fact that this falsehood contained in the said letter has painted us in bad light and gone viral, even though the UAE Minister of Economy may have been misinformed by his aides, we, still, and humbly demand a retraction of the offending accusation of “stopping, shifting and returning” and an unreserved apology tendered to Air Peace.

We thank you for standing up for our dear nation.

Yours Faithfully, FOR: AIR PEACE LIMITED

Oluwatoyin Olajide

Chief Operating Officer