The drive to bring economic integration closer to West African cities ought to be multi-dimensional. But the aviation wing appears to have received some hiccups. One of the zealous airlines in this direction, Air Peace, has put on hold the launch of its Freetown, Banjul, and Dakar operations, originally scheduled for December 15, following industrial action at Dakar International Airport in Senegal.
The airline said while all was set for the regional route expansion, a strike by the Air Traffic Controllers, ATCs, at Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport, Dakar, and a temporary closure of the airport, has rendered the West coast operation incomplete.
Meanwhile, the airline has apologised for flight delays and cancellations experienced last week at the General Aviation Terminal, GAT, of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, blaming it on power outage.
The representative of the airline, Chris Iwarah, described the West Coast delay as temporary, pointing out that the proper launch will take place as soon as the industrial action was settled. According to Mr. Iwarah, “Members of our advance crew were already on ground in Dakar when we received the news around midnight of December 14, the eve of the launch that Dakar’s Air Traffic Control, ATC, would shut down on December 15, which we had planned to operate our inaugural flight into the destination”.
Mr. Iwarah went on to bemoan the development, “It completely upset our plan, as Dakar is critical to the new routes launch. We had no choice than to take the painful decision to call off the launch to avoid our esteemed guests getting stuck in the area despite the huge financial and material resources we had committed to the process. Our decision to call off the launch turned out to be quite right as members of our advance crew were eventually caught in the industrial unrest and got stuck in Dakar.”
He insisted that the incident, rather than discourage the airline from servicing the routes, has more than ever fuelled the resolve to tackle the difficulties experienced by air travellers on the routes. “We have immediately begun fresh arrangements to expand to the routes and when we are really certain that the industrial unrest in Dakar has been fully settled, we will announce a new launch date and deliver on our promise to end the nightmare of air travellers on the routes,” Iwarah said.
It was later explained that the cut in power supply at the GAT last Monday, affected the airline’s server room and other facilities critical to its flight operations. The airline said it had to resort to alternative arrangements to save its operations from entirely grinding to a halt pending the intervention of the managers of the facility – the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN. However, despite the measures taken to salvage the situation, the incident caused annoying delays and outright cancellation of some of its flights.
