It seems like wherever we are these days, the hottest trending topic in air travel is the stunning news that Air Peace, the pugnacious little Nigerian airline has started plying the UK-Nigeria route, with a service from London, Gatwick to Lagos, Nigeria.
The announcement by Air Peace has triggered universal sighs of relief amongst the hundreds of thousands of Nigerians and other travellers on that route, thanks to the amazing reduction in the cost of its flight tickets in comparison to the larger traditional airlines.
Immediately following Air Peace’s fully booked maiden flight, there has been a mass rush by her more established competitor airlines, the most prominent being British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, to slash prices in an apparent move to reflect new market realities in their operating environment.
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Perhaps a few remarks on the background to this development might assist the reader in a big-picture understanding of the present phenomenon.
For years, following the ignominious demise of Nigeria Airways from the business of flying as the national carrier, the London to Lagos route has been the de facto “property” of British Airways and, to a lesser extent, Virgin Atlantic Airways.
As in all monopoly situations, there have been countless complaints of bad treatment of customers who nonetheless had no option but to use the service because there was no alternative.
Price-gouging of customers was the persistent charge, but the most egregious allegation has always been the disdain with which British Airways often treated customers on the London-Lagos route. Old and tired aircraft, which had been retired from other routes, were nonetheless deemed appropriate for the largely Nigerian clientele on the route, while frequent delays to scheduled flights were the norm.
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Little wonder, therefore, that there’s jubilation in the streets of Lagos and elsewhere, at Air Peace’s aviation coup in securing and operating a slot on the busy London – Lagos route.
Even more exhilarating, is the fact that since Air Peace’s inaugural flight, ticket prices on the route have plummeted like a falling stone! The details below tell more eloquently the dramatic price reductions than anything to be said.
Now, this is unalloyed good news for the traveler and can be described as the market working predictably, in reaction to signals received. If this carries on, perhaps Air Peace can build its reputation and market share, to become the dominant airline on the route.
I can not help but sound a note of caution, however. In the early 1980s, a revolutionary airline was started in the UK by a buccaneering businessman, Sir Freddie Laker (he was knighted by the Thatcher Tory government for services to aviation, by the way). Anyway, Laker Airlines took on the big boys on the lucrative London – New York route, charging an unheard-of £99 for the flight!
Overnight, nearly everybody, including the disabled with crutches, took to the air with Laker flights, and for a time, the airline couldn’t lease enough planes to keep up with demand. Passengers, many of them adventurous students, came to London from nearby European cities to take advantage of the novel opportunity to see America often for the first time.
It was a revolution in cheap flights, considering the popularity of the route, a comparable one to the London-Lagos route, at least in proportional and emotional terms.
British Airways and the other big boys allegedly resolved to teach the upstart airline a lesson. Not only did they reduce their prices to match broadly Laker’s offering, but they were alleged to have adopted “dirty” tactics including offering heavily discounted tickets below costs, and scheduling disruptive flights to make it difficult for Laker to maintain its momentum.
Reminiscent of these events, Air Peace have already started to complain that weeks after its commencement on the route, not only have the various competitor airlines drastically reduced their ticket prices, but they have begun to encounter inexplicable disruptions at the airport that pose difficulties for the efficient scheduling of flight operations.
Of course, all these may be natural market phenomena, as the competitors and Gatwick airport itself adjust to the new situation. Yet one cannot help wondering if it’s mere coincidence over all these years of relentless high ticket prices, market forces never once sent prices in the opposite direction to its relentless rise. Until the intervention of Air Peace!
To complete the tale of Laker Airlines, however, the long and short of it was that it was forced into failure and bankruptcy by a combination of stiff competition and alleged underhanded tactics. Laker sued British Airways but was unable to recover. With the demise of Laker, British Airways and others have consistently raised their prices until the present iteration of the phenomenon.
It is suggested that many of the tactics used may have been illegal. British Airways is still here with us and will fight like hell to hang on to its profits on the route.
Air Peace had better get its “A” game on at all times until it becomes an immovable fixture on the route. It also needs to enlist its government’s support in reciprocating “interference” at its Lagos hub that favours her and discombobulates British Airways and the other competitor airlines, in the same manner that Air Peace complains the owners of Gatwick bat in favour of the competition.
Above all, it had also better have on retainer, a crack team of lawyers ready, willing and able to prepare and prosecute an anti-trust campaign as soon as they identify clear breaches of the competition rules by any airline, or collusion thereto by the relevant airport.
Nigeria is the nation with the largest black population in the world and the lack of nationally flagged airline, whether public or privately owned, has been a glaring gap in its transport architecture that was gasping to be filled. Quite apart from the strategic economic value of a viable home based airline, the value national pride cannot be underestimated.
The country is now long overdue for such a national airline that caters to her large and important diaspora community , which constitutes a large and growing contributor to the national economy in foreign exchange remittanc s and investment.
Other routes await the likes of Air Peace to make their debut in their location, such as Toronto, New York, Houston, and Atlanta.
Let us bid farewell to the days of being tolerated and treated poorly on the airlines, let us put an end to the days when the oldest airplanes ply the Nigerian route, let us support our own, let Air Peace provide us with world class services let us build Nigeria together, let us build Africa together let us strengthen the Naira. In return, let Air Peace remain competitive and offer world-class services and not take us for granted. Let the lawyers begin to prepare for whatever may come. We will survive and live to thrive!
Ferdinand Orleans-Lindsay
Concordia Journal