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By Chinelo Obogo
Air Peace has said that it suffered a financial loss exceeding $15 million after a breach of contract by its wet-lease partner, SmartLynx Airlines, causing a week of flight disruptions.
Speaking during a press conference on Friday at the airline’s headquarters in Lagos, the Chief Commercial Officer of Air Peace, Mr. Nowel Ngala, stated that the crisis was directly triggered by the “abrupt and unjustified withdrawal” of four aircraft wet-leased from SmartLynx. A wet-lease agreement involves one airline providing an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance to another airline.
According to Ngala, SmartLynx’s actions were not only a violation of their agreement but were done with prior knowledge that the aircraft would be repossessed. He said:
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Ngala said: “Over the past week, Air Peace has experienced several operational disruptions, resulting in flight delays and cancellations. We understand the inconvenience this has caused our valued customers, and we want to address these issues with full transparency. Air Peace entered a wet-lease agreement with Smartlynx because 13 of our aircraft are currently undergoing scheduled maintenance abroad. To avoid service gaps and ensure Nigerians could continue to travel conveniently, we leased aircraft from Smartlynx. These efforts were made solely to support our passengers during peak travel periods.
“The disruptions were caused by the abrupt and unjustified withdrawal of four aircraft we wet-leased from SmartLynx Airlines. This withdrawal was done without prior notice, a clear violation of industry standards, and of the agreement between both parties. What makes this even more concerning is that SmartLynx had collected money upfront from Air Peace, fully aware that the rightful owners of those aircraft would be withdrawing their aircraft from them because they have been in default of payments to the said owners.
“Over $5million of our money, including over a million dollars paid as security deposits for those aircraft, are with them while they are about to run away from Nigeria and this situation has caused over 15 million dollars in damages to Air Peace. These aircraft had already been rostered for scheduled flights, and their sudden removal created significant gaps in our operations. It is important to note that other airlines who lease aircraft from SmartLynx from other parts of the world were similarly affected, confirming a broad pattern of unprofessional conduct.
