Six Nigerian airlines team up to form an alliance code -named ‘Spring Alliance’

Passengers in Nigeria, patronizing airlines travelling to destinations within the country, can now heave a sigh of relief as their complaints about flight delays and cancellations, will now become a thing of the past, following the decision by six Nigerian airlines to team up to form an alliance code -named ‘Spring Alliance’, aimed at easing operational hitches and tackle other challenges facing them.  

Africa Update gathered that airlines involved in the new alliance include Air Peace, Azman Air, United Nigeria Airline, Arik Air, Aero Contractors and Max Air, all signed the agreement on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, in Lagos. The Chairman of Air Peace and Vice-president of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Allen Onyema, said the alliance is for the benefit of the passengers who fly with the six airlines.

“In the Aviation world, we have so many airline alliances like Star Alliance, One World and several others. Airlines go into those alliances for the benefit of both passengers and themselves. So today, these six airlines have decided to come together to form the Spring Alliance for the benefit of the flying public that use the opportunity provided by these airlines to fly.

“By this alliance,our passengers are protected whenever there is a problem with one airline. It is our response to the complaints of the flying public, so this alliance will enable us to satisfy them. But with this alliance and what we are going to be doing henceforth, the flying public will reap the benefit. For example if Air Peace has a tech issue on any of its aircraft, the passengers of Air Peace need not to be delayed, if any member of this alliance is going to the same destination, all we need to do is move the passengers over to that other airline, a member of the alliance, at no further cost to the passenger”.

Onyema said that the Spring Alliance is not limited to Nigerian airlines alone, as other African airlines may wish to join, adding that the alliance originated from Nigeria, but is open to the world.

 The Managing Director, Aero Contractors, Capt. Abdullahi Mahmood, noted that the formation of the Spring Alliance is a historic move, one that prioritises the satisfaction of the passenger.

“History has been made here today in Nigeria, and this is the first time something like this is happening in Nigeria’s aviation industry. You can see that the airline operators are fully committed to making sure that our passengers are satisfied. Safety is the number one priority and this is what we stand for and coming together.

Like my colleagues rightly said, you find out that all these delays are caused by problems that passengers do not know and we just carry them from one point to another on time and make sure that everything goes smoothly. We are asking passengers to give their utmost cooperation, we are doing our best, it is a challenging situation we find ourselves but yes, we are all in this together and we are hopefully coming out together,” Mahmood said.