Air Peace operated its maiden international flight on 16 February 2017, launching regional service to Accra, Ghana, and marking the airline's first step outside Nigeria's domestic market since it was founded in 2013. The Accra route gave the carrier its first taste of cross-border operations as it laid groundwork for a far more ambitious international expansion plan.
The Federal Government had already designated Air Peace to eventually operate long-haul routes to destinations including London, Houston, Dubai, Guangzhou and Mumbai, and the airline used the weeks after the Accra launch to begin preparing its crews for that expansion. In April, four of its pilots, including Chief Pilot Captain Victor Egonu, completed Boeing 777 handling training at Boeing's training centre in the United Kingdom, the first such training undertaken by any Nigerian airline.
A Deliberate First Step
Industry observers noted that starting with a short regional hop to Accra, rather than attempting a long-haul route immediately, reflected a cautious approach to international expansion by an airline whose growth had, until then, been built entirely on the Nigerian domestic market. Air Peace said it intended to expand its route network progressively as its wide-body fleet and long-haul crew training programme matured.