Air Peace suspends operations over COVID-19

Chinazor Megbolu

The foremost indigenous airline, Air Peace has said the organisation is suspending all flight operations from Friday, March 27, 2020.

Air Peace announced, that the suspension will take effect from 11pm on same day towards curtailing the menace of Covid-19 pandemic.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Air Peace, Mrs. Toyin Olajide who explained the suspension of the flight operations was in the best interest of the country.

She further stated that the suspension would last for 23 days starting from 11:00pm on Friday, March 27, 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to her, “this difficult decision was reached in order to, not only, support the efforts of the Federal Government and other stakeholders in curbing the spread of this virus in our nation but also to protect our teeming passengers and our staff from becoming victims of the pandemic”.

Olajide, however, posited that passenger traffic in the last 3 weeks had nosedived to a great extent as a result of coronavirus pandemic.

She maintained that it was unwise to continue raking up avoidable costs that the airline could ill-afford.

“Continuation of flight operations in the present circumstances we find ourselves as airlines, could lead to the total collapse of any airline hence the need to quickly stem the rising financial burden and costs of operations.

“While the suspension is on, we are, however, willing to do special flights both for the government and our people. Normal scheduled flight operations shall resume on April 20, 2020.

“We regret any inconvenience this decision may have caused our teeming passengers,” Olajide said.

Editing by ‘Biodun Soyele