Air Peace in Talks with Boeing for Possible Boeing 787 Order

Nigeria's and West Africa's largest airline, Air Peace, is aiming high with its long-haul fleet expansion plan. The carrier is in talks with American aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, for a possible order for the ultra-modern Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

This was revealed by the airline’s CEO, Barr Allen Onyema, during a SkyConnect Leadership Dialogue webcast series hosted by the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) on 13 February, 2023.

“We have our Boeing 777s, and we are also discussing with Boeing for the Dreamliner, which I feel will come very soon”, Onyema said. Details of the order, including aircraft variant, quantity, and delivery timeline were not given.

Although not specified by Onyema, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner order will likely be for the versatile 787-9 variant. Out of the three Dreamliner variants, the 787-9 has the right range and capacity for Air Peace’s international route network.

Privately-owned carrier, Air Peace launched flight operations in October, 2014. Since then, the airline has been pursuing aggressive network expansion plan, becoming the largest airline both in Nigeria and in West Africa.

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Air Peace's route network has rapidly grown over the years, and currently comprises of 20 domestic destinations, 7 regional destinations, and 3 international destinations. The airline has finalized plans to launch flight to Mumbai on 31 March, 2023.

If the Dreamliner order goes through, Air Peace will become the first Nigerian airline and the fifth African carrier to operate the fuel-efficient Boeing 787 aircraft. The other four carriers are Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, Royal Air Maroc, and EgyptAir.

Air Peace leads Nigeria’s aviation industry with a network of 20 domestic routes, 7 regional routes and 3 international destinations, with a modern fleet of Boeing 777, Boeing 737, Embraer 195-E2, Airbus 320, ERJ 145 and Dornier 328 Jet.

The airline is expecting to increase its fleet with the delivery of 8 more brand new Embraer 195-E2s as well as 15 brand new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, including 7 MAX 8 and 8 MAX 10.