Air Peace of Nigeria continues its growth, with the airline signing for five Embraer E175 aircraft.
The airline has made a firm order with Embraer for five E175 aircraft, as the airline progresses with its fleet modernisation, as it progresses on its path to becoming the operator of the largest and youngest fleet of aircraft in Africa. The move will allow Air Peace to enhance its domestic and regional network connectivity and pave the way for further regional expansion.
Deliveries of the 88-seat E175 aircraft start in 2024, with a list price of US$288.3m for the five aircraft.
Air Peace is currently an operator of Embraer’s newest and largest jet, the E195-E2. These smaller aircraft will complement the airline’s existing fleet, allowing Air Peace to match capacity to demand, protecting yields and route viability.
In Quotes
The Chairman and CEO of Air Peace, Mr Allen Onyema, said:
“This is another important step in helping to realize our ambition to connect the whole of Nigeria with the entire African continent, while also feeding passengers into long-haul flights from our Lagos hub. The acquisition enables us to continue delivering on our ‘no-city-left-behind’ initiative – connectivity is what our passengers, and Africa, demand. The deal also paves the way to establish local maintenance capabilities in Nigeria, with direct support from Embraer.”
Stephan Hannemann, VP of Sales & Marketing, Head of Africa & Middle East Region, Commercial Aviation adds:
“Air Peace’s strategic and innovative approach continues to make them a powerhouse of aviation success in West Africa. Already an E2 operator, it now makes sense to upgauge their ERJ145 fleet, offering passengers more seats and comfort with the E175. The commonality of the cockpits between the E1 and E2 fleet also simplifies aircrew costs and management. Acknowledging Air Peace’s significant investment in the acquisition of the Embraer fleet of aircraft, which has increased to 18 brand new firm aircraft to date, Embraer, in partnership with Air Peace is committed to directly supporting the establishment of local maintenance capabilities in Nigeria”
Current operations
Air Peace is scaling up its fleet as it continues to grow. At the time of writing the airline operates a Boeing 777-300, a Boeing 777-200ER, five Boeing 737 family aircraft (Classic and NextGen), an Airbus A320, six Embraer E145s and five Embraer E195-E2.
Growth continues to be an important thing, as the airline seeks to rightsize itself and grow its operation. Given that the airline is an Embrear operator for its regional fleet already, it’s a logical pickup to pick similar types that can be deployed through its network.
Whilst they are losing one aircraft (six versus five), the capacity of the E175s overall should make up for that missing aircraft with ease – and who knows, may lead to further follow-on orders.
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