The South African Government has granted Air Peace’s request to commence commercial flights to Johannesburg, South Africa. This was confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign affairs in a statement through its spokesperson, Ferdinard Nwoye.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to inform that the South African Government has granted request for the Nigerian Designated Airline, Air Peace to commence commercial flights to Johannesburg, South Africa,” the statement read.
The confirmation was granted in the process of ascertaining the level of implementation of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and South Africa. This was at the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) of the 9th Session of the Nigeria/South Africa Bi-National Commission Summit in Pretoria, South Africa on Friday 27th September 2019.
While speaking about the new agreement, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace Airlines, Chief Allen Onyema confirmed that the airline would commence operation as soon as possible to promote air travel between Nigeria and South Africa.
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It was gathered that the bi-national meeting held on Friday focused on the consolidation of the subsisting signed Agreements/MoUs between both countries.
The bilateral air services agreements between Nigeria and South Africa will allow the designated airlines of the countries to operate commercial flights normally as it will regulate frequency and capacity of air services between the countries, pricing and other commercial aspects. This will help in boosting international relations between countries.
The Nigeria-South Africa Joint Commission was established in 1999 to promote relations between both countries and it was upgraded to Bi-National Commission (BNC) in 2001.
To showcase the strategic nature of the relationship between the two very important countries, the commission is expected to be further upgraded to the Summit level on October. 3.
Samson Oyedeyi
