Nigeria's leading airline, Air Peace has received a boost for its domestic expansion drive with the delivery of an Embraer 145 aircraft.

The aircraft named Nkechi Ezewusi (Nee Onyema) touched down at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos on Wednesday at about 5.49pm.

The 50-seater narrow-body aircraft is one of the six new generation Embraer 145 jets the airline recently acquired.

In a related development which is the first of its kind in Nigerian, Air Peace has established a subsidiary called Air Peace Hopper under which the Embraer aircraft will operate.

Air Peace Hopper will connect many unserved and underserved routes such as Enugu-Kano-Enugu, Benin-Port-Harcourt-Benin, Port-Harcourt-Kano-Port-Harcourt, Lagos-Kaduna-Lagos, Lagos-Sokoto-Lagos, Abuja-Sokoto-Abuja, Lagos- Markurdi-Lagos, Lagos-Jos-Lagos etc.

According to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace Mr. Allen Onyema, another Embraer 145 jet will arrive in Nigeria in less than a week.

Air Peace is currently pursuing massive route expansion. It will launch Lagos-Kano-Lagos and Kano-Abuja-Kano services on February 12 followed by Lagos-Yola and Abuja-Yola operations on February 15.

The airline will commence flight operations to Freetown, Banjul, and Dakar on February 19, with other cities on the West Coast of Africa joining their route network shortly.

Air Peace is also finalizing plans to launch flight operations to international destinations including Dubai, Guangzhou-China, London, Houston, Mumbai, and Johannesburg.

The new aircraft is the fourth Air Peace has received in the last 12 months alone. The carrier is also expecting the delivery of two Boeing 777 and more Boeing 737 aircraft.