Suspend British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Flights to Nigeria, Falana tells FG

Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has called for the suspension of flight operations into Nigeria by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

This, he said, was due to the denial of Air Peace right to operate to London.

The legal luminary said the British carriers should also be suspended pending when Nigeria’s Air Peace is allowed to also fly on the Lagos-London route in accordance with the provisions of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement(BASA) signed by Nigeria and United Kingdom.

He was quoted as speaking at the just concluded Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) Conference in Abuja.

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that the move by Air Peace to operate to London, one of the most lucrative routes for airlines operating to Nigeria, is allegedly being frustrated by authorities in the UK.

This is despite that the UK Airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic enjoy 21 frequencies weekly to Nigeria.

Daily Trust reports that in the bilateral air service agreement (BASA) entered into among countries for the purpose of flight operations, there is a provision of reciprocity.

This means that if a foreign airline enjoys seven weekly frequencies to Nigeria, the country must also make available the same frequencies for a Nigerian airline to fly to that country.

Speaking at the Aviation Roundtable forum in Lagos recently, Onyema had stated that the airline which currently flies to China, India, South Africa and Israel, wrote to the UK authorities to start operating to London but they wrote back to the airline to stop disturbing them.

He said, “Why is Air Peace not flying to London? We fly to China, India, South-Africa, we started Jeddah and Madinah. Why are we being stopped from going to London, a six-hour flight? It is a piece of cake for the kind of equipment we have got.

“They gave us a destination to go to London. We applied to go to London but they denied us. What reason? They said because the previous airlines failed and so what? They stopped us for the four years we have been applying.”

But Falana in lending its voice to the development stated that BASA allows for reciprocity of flight operations on the route by designated airlines of both countries in line with the agreement signed by both countries and that it was out of place and unfair for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to be allowed to continue flying into Nigeria without any Nigerian airline flying to London in return.

He observed that Air Peace has proven it has the capacity to operate on international routes, adding that the airline currently flies to China, Israel, India and South Africa among others using modern aircraft comparable to those of its foreign competitors.

Falana, therefore, submitted that ‘If Air Peace is not allowed to fly to London, then British Airways and Virgin Atlantic should be stopped from flying to Nigeria “.