Reports on the protest letter that Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, wrote to his British colleague have been all over the media. The purpose of the letter was to formally protest the UK airport authority’s denial of Nigerian Air Peace’s request to land at Heathrow Airport.
Keyamo threatened to “reciprocate” by denying British Airways and Virgin Atlantic slots at the Lagos and Abuja airports if Air Peace was not given a space at London Heathrow in a letter dated August 1, 2024, addressed to Louise Haigh, the UK Secretary of State for Transport.
Air Peace now operates out of Gatwick Airport, a minor airport, even though Heathrow is the main airport in the United Kingdom.
Heathrow Airport in the UK might be compared to Murtala Muhammed Airport in Nigeria, Gatwick Airport in the UK to Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Nigeria, and Enugu International Airport in the UK to Lagos Airport.
According to the report, Air Peace’s attempts to secure a slot at Heathrow, which is closer to the center of London, have been unsuccessful.
In the meanwhile, Nigeria and the UK are parties to a bilateral aviation safety agreement that calls for the sharing of civil aviation certifications between the two nations.
The Bilateral Aviation Safety accord is the name of this accord.
In order to prevent needless duplication of review and to make it easier for the civil aviation authorities to certify aeronautical items, a BASA lays down the responsibilities and procedures for collaboration between the agencies.
Thus, a BASA upholds the highest standards of aviation safety while promoting trade in aircraft and related goods.
Airport managers are also permitted by this agreement to grant aircraft from member nations similar landing privileges inside their jurisdiction.
However, several industry participants believed that specific airports were not the focus of the Nigeria-UK BASA agreement, but rather selected metropolitan destinations.
The stakeholder stated that Heathrow cannot be specifically included in the agreement since it is not under the Department of Transport’s jurisdiction and because the UK government does not participate in the distribution of airport slots.
They suggested that Air Peace handle the matter on its own and refrain from taking it further.
The independent body in charge of assigning slots in the UK, Airport Coordination Limited, revealed that Air Peace had overlooked two important deadlines when seeking landing slots, adding a new twist to the diplomatic spat between the two nations.
Air Peace was accused by the company of not submitting its slot requests for the Northern Summer 2024 and Northern Winter 2024 scheduling seasons in a timely manner.
The slot allocator revealed the missed deadlines, which have complicated matters further and given rise to legitimate worries about the airline’s capacity to establish a presence at one of the busiest airports in the world.
An airline executive, who wished to remain anonymous due to the delicate diplomatic situation at hand, informed our correspondent that the airline was not pleased with the UK government’s decision to deny permission for an Air Peace plane to land at Heathrow.
“It is important to note that we have done due diligence in ensuring that we get a slot, but they were claiming the crowd was too much for them,” he said, noting that the airline would not want to get involved in the situation. Only for us to find out later on that they said we weren’t eligible for two seasons. The same you who said at first that there weren’t any slots because of the crowd?
As I previously stated, we have done our research and we’ll keep acting morally. We ask God to support the minister so we can have the slots we want from them.
Nevertheless, despite the UK’s aviation authorities’ insistence, the Nigerian government has persisted in permitting UK flag bearers to arrive at Nigeria’s main airports.
Through his letter, Keyamo responded to the development by expressing his displeasure with it.
According to a portion of the diplomatic document that was released to the media, Air Peace has been flying into Heathrow, its first choice, since March 2024 due to “the consistent denial of slot” by the UK slot office on the Nigeria-London route.
“The airline had previously attempted repeatedly to fly from Lagos to Heathrow Airport but was refused permission; instead, it was only allowed to travel from Lagos to Gatwick Airport.
“After the Nigerian government gave the airline permission to operate the Abuja-London route, the company applied for a slot at London Heathrow Airport with the intention of starting flights in November 2024, which is the IATA Winter Season. It is really discouraging that the airline has not heard back favorably from the slot office as of yet.
He reminded the UK that there were no restrictions on British Airways’ or Virgin Atlantic’s ability to fly into Nigeria’s main airports, Lagos and Abuja.
Since 1936, British Airways has operated flights into Lagos.
As a result, Nigerian designated carriers must benefit from the same reciprocity as do British carriers. Slot distribution to Nigerian carriers is a constant source of contention, which is extremely unfair on the part of the British authorities and a disgrace to the Nigerian government and the country at large. Keyamo added, “We feel deceived by the British authorities for not returning the benevolent gesture of the Nigerian State and its people.
The minister instructed the UK airport authority to refrain from using the slot allocation dispute as a pretext to dispute the existence of a bilateral air services agreement, which is rooted in the reciprocity principle, between Nigeria and the UK.
The minister’s threat was followed by a junior Air Peace employee who told our correspondent, “Obviously, the management is concerned by this development between the UK and Nigerian governments, but we are only taking solace in the possibility that the matter may be resolved before the deadline given.” The employee did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak for the company.
Additionally, when our journalist chatted with Adetutu Otuyalu, the Regional Country Manager for Nigeria and Ghana at British Airways, she abruptly stopped replying to the questions.
The President of the Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria, Dr Kingsley Nwokoma, backed Keyamo, saying if UK airlines could enjoy Nigeria’s best airports, such privilege should also be reciprocated.
He also demanded that the issue be resolved with greater diplomacy.
“Since we lack a national carrier, our current national flag carrier should be permitted to fly to their own best airports as well if they are enjoying our best airport,” he said.
“This is not a difficult task. Parties to BASA include the UK and Nigeria. Thus, why can’t our flag carrier make a landing at their top airport?
“This once happened between Air Peace and the UAE and the Nigerian government sat with them and things were resolved so, I want to advise that the same tactics be employed to resolve this matter.”
Also, a commercial pilot with over 30 years of experience, Captain John Okakpu, lauded the minister’s decision to shut the landing space against both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic pending the provision of landing rights to Air Peace.
He recalled that the former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, once shut airlines from the UK when they once disallowed the defunct Nigeria Airways from landing in the UK’s A’ class airport.
“If they refused to allow Air Peace to land in Heathrow, the minister should also banish the airlines to maybe Enugu or even Ibadan.
“Abacha stopped them from coming to our country at a time. They should also feel what we are feeling. Why should they have 21 frequencies to Nigeria and the less than seven we have, they won’t still allow us to complete it even as Nigeria’s flag carrier? At least Arik is not as sophisticated as Air Peace and they go to Heathrow. What is the meaning of all these?
“Can you imagine what Nigerians go through when their cargoes get to Gatwick? They always have to transport it to Heathrow after paying so much for airlifting from their primary destination, which cannot continue. When passengers are going to the U.S. from Nigeria, they will be taken to Gatwick and then transported back to Heathrow before getting their connecting flight to the U.S. So why should Nigerians go through this unnecessary pain and extra spending?” he quizzed.
Although Heathrow is now ranked 12th in the global ranking, slipping from its position at 8th in 2023, a survey by aviation analyst Cirium, which calculated the number of airports each hub served between January and June 2024, showed.
It comes despite the west London airport handling more passengers than any of its European competitors and offering over 4.5 million seats this month, according to OAG Aviation.
It was ranked the world’s fifth busiest airport last year.
Its ranking as best-connected has improved considerably in recent years, as pre-pandemic records revealed the west London hub stood in 18th position, according to the Independent.
In the first half of 2024, it served 221 locations, while London Gatwick Airport served 218 and has been positioned 14th.
It trails Heathrow by two spots despite serving half of the passengers Heathrow does.
In the list whittled down from airports worldwide, Istanbul emerged on top with some 309 destinations on offer. Most are on Turkish Airlines, the carrier with the most extensive route network in the world.
It is followed by Istanbul Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol, with 296, 282 and 270 locations on their departure screens, respectively.
The only other European airport in the top 10 and 10th position is Rome Fiumicino, with 234 locations.
Meanwhile, Chicago O’Hare is the top non-European airport listed, serving 270 airports next to Dubai International, which serves 269 airports.
Dallas-Fort Worth, Shanghai Pudong and Atlanta occupy seventh, eighth and ninth place in the table, respectively.
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