Suspend British Airways, Virgin Atlantic from operating in Nigeria now,  Falana tells FG

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic should stop operating flights into Nigeria, according to human rights attorney Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

He made the call after Air Peace was denied permission to operate in London.

The legal expert opined that the British airlines should also be put on hold until Nigeria’s Air Peace is granted permission to fly on the Lagos-London route in accordance with the terms of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) that Nigeria and the UK signed.

He was quoted as saying this during the recent Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Conference in Abuja.

According to earlier reports, UK officials are opposing Air Peace plans to fly to London, one of the most lucrative routes for airlines serving Nigeria. This is even as UK airlines, including Virgin Atlantic and British Airways enjoy 21 weekly flights to Nigeria.

There is a reciprocity clause in the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) that nations signed into for the purpose of conducting flight operations.

In other words, if a foreign airline has access to seven weekly frequencies to Nigeria, the country must likewise make those frequencies available to a Nigerian airline.

Air Peace, 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 bothering them, according to Onyema, who recently spoke at the Aviation Roundtable meeting in Lagos.

He said, “Why is Air Peace not flying to London? We fly to China, India, and 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, lending his 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 “.