The Chief Operating Officer, Air Peace, Mrs. Toyin Olajide, has announced the suspension of flight services by the company for 23 days, as a way to curtail the spread of coronavirus.

In a statement signed by Olajide, she confirmed that this suspension will take effect as from Friday, 27th March.

The statement reads in part: “It is with a great sense of responsibility that we have decided, in the best interest of our nation, our passengers and workforce, to suspend scheduled flight operations for 23 days effective 23.00hrs on Friday (an hour before midnight on Friday) the 27th day of March, 2020 as a result of the Covid-19.

“This difficult decision was reached in order to, not only, support the efforts of the Federal Government and other stakeholders in curbing the spread of this virus in our nation but also to protect our teeming passengers and our staff from becoming victims of the pandemic.”

Olajide stated that the airline has not recorded the usual passenger traffic in the last three weeks as a result of coronavirus, so it is therefore very unwise to continue raking up avoidable costs that the airline could ill afford.

She added that “Continuation of flight operations in the present circumstances we find ourselves as airlines, could lead to the total collapse of any airline hence the need to quickly stem the rising financial burden and costs of operations.

“While the suspension is on, we are, however, willing to do special flights both for the government and our people. Normal scheduled flight operations shall resume on April 20, 2020. We regret any inconvenience this decision may have caused our teeming Passengers.”