Anambra State Governor, Chief Willie Obiano and the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) have congratulated Air Peace airline on the delivery of its third Boeing 777 aircraft.
The aircraft, which landed at the Murtala Muhamed International Airport, Lagos on March 20, is part of the four Boeing 777s Air Peace recently acquired for its soon-to-start long-haul operations to Sharjah, Dubai, Johannesburg, London, Houston, Guangzhou and Mumbai.
This is just as the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has commended the airline, its Chairman, Mr. Allen Onyema and crew members for waging war against human trafficking.
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A statement signed by Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr C. Don Adinuba on the delivery of the Boeing 777 plane quoted Obiano as describing Air Peace as Nigeria’s fastest growing and most ambitious airline in history.
Expressing satisfaction with the number of aircraft the airline had acquired since it commenced flight operations in 2014, the governor said: “Of particular interest to both the flying public and the government is its safety record which is excellent owing to the extra mile it goes to not only maintain its machines to the highest global standards but also make its technical crew regard safety as the highest pursuit in the aviation industry”.
Obiano while urging the Federal Government to support the airline with a flag carrier status, declared: “This is a more pragmatic step to take than the rumoured current attempt in some quarters to make the President Muhammadu Buhari administration establish a state-owned airline, despite the terrible record of Nigeria Airways and the government’s wise suspension of Nigeria Air last September”.
Reacting to the airline’s commendation by NAPTIP, it’s Chairman assured that the airline would partner with NAPTIP in the agency’s task of checking human trafficking, including providing jobs for victims of the illicit trade in persons.
Speaking when she visited Air Peace Corporate Headquarters last Thursday, the Director General of NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli commended the airline’s flight and cabin crew members for frustrating attempts by human traffickers to use the carrier’s flights for their illegal trade.
She cited the rescue of a three-month-old boy from traffickers on the airline’s Lagos-Banjul flight on June 4, 2018 as a feat that had distinguished Air Peace as an organisation working vigorously to assist the agency to stop human trafficking.
The height of the NAPTIP team visit to the airline’s head office, the Chairman and some of the airline workers were decorated with NAPTIP’s ambassadorial medals by the agency’s director general.