Obinna Odogwu, Awka

Anambra State government, yesterday, said Nigeria’s leading air carrier, Air Peace, was taking the lead in the rebranding process of the nation’s image on the global stage.

Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr Don Adinuba, in statement made available to Daily Sun in Awka said that “there is no individual or organisation anywhere in the world helping as much as Air Peace is doing to re-brand Nigeria in the comity of nations, starting with the global aviation industry.”

The government said that the airline’s plan to commence operations into Mumbai, India, next month was its latest brave effort to position the country strategically on the global scene.

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The statement partly read: “All Nigerians are impressed by the fact that a few months after Nigeria and India signed a Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA), our own airline has taken far-reaching steps to make the country benefit reasonably from the deal.”

It said that though 25 foreign airlines operate into the country, some from multiple destinations, Nigeria has been utilising not more than 10 per cent of its air agreements with other nations on account of limited capacity.

Air Peace began international operations in July last year, with direct flights into the United Arab Emirates, charging passengers from Lagos to Sharjah and Dubai about half of the fares by foreign airlines on the same route.

The airline, which commenced scheduled passenger flights in 2014 a year after incorporation, hit the  bull’s eye on September 14, 2018, when it signed in the residence of the American Consul General in Lagos, a deal worth billions of dollars with Boeing Corporation to purchase 10 brand new planes from the world’s foremost aircraft manufacturing company which is based in Seattle, Washington State.