Can Air Peace revive LIAT 2020?

In early May 2023 Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced that Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, is set to acquire a 70 per cent stake in LIAT 2020.

Air Peace was founded in 2013 by Nigerian lawyer and businessman Allen Onyema, with its head office in Ikeja, Lagos State.

The latest announcement followed a visit to Nigeria on April 28 by Antigua and Barbuda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chet Greene, during which he met his Nigerian counterpart Geoffrey Onyeama and Air Peace CEO Allen Onyema.

In July 2020 LIAT (1974) went into bankruptcy and court-appointed administration. The government of Antigua and Barbuda, as the largest shareholder government, added business rehabilitation provisions to its Companies Act and incorporated a new company, LIAT 2020 Ltd.

In February 2023, on the initiative of PM Browne, the heads of Caricom met in St Lucia to discuss proposals for regional participation in LIAT 2020. The discussions which centred on capital funding, routes and governance, evoked a less than lukewarm response from the heads and ended without a consensus on the way forward.

At a post-Cabinet news briefing to report back on Browne’s meeting with his fellow Caricom heads, Antigua and Barbuda’s Information Minister Melford Nicholas said the future of LIAT 2020 remains in limbo, as Caribbean governments remain apprehensive about setting up the new entity. Nicholas also cited “a significant degree of reticence within other Caribbean member states to embrace LIAT 2020.”

In April 2023, Nicholas said, “The public must be aware that there are hostile attempts to reprise from Antigua the central role that LIAT has played in our economy and as a regional air carrier. LIAT did not just fall out of the sky during covid19; there were purposive efforts made to weaken the position of LIAT operating from a hub in Antigua and to re-establish the hub in the southern part of the Caribbean,”

Nicholas pointed the finger at Barbados, one of the shareholders of LIAT, as the main force slowing down the airline’s revival.

LIAT 2020 is expected to commence operations after the grant of its air operators certificate (AOC) by the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA). Air Peace’s ownership of 70 per cent of LIAT 2020 poses certain regulatory challenges for the grant of an AOC and designation under the Caricom MASA. Under Section 18 of Antigua and Barbuda’s Civil Aviation Act 2003, only citizens or an entity majority-owned by citizens of Antigua and Barbuda can quality for an AOC.

The Browne administration may have granted Allen Onyema, the founder and chairman of Air Peace, Antigua and Barbuda citizenship under its Citizenship by Investment Programme.

Onyema is publicly referred to as the founder, chairman and CEO of Air Peace. However, the extent of his ownership and shareholding in Air Peace remains unknown. If Onyema is a minority shareholder of Air Peace, its 70 per cent ownership of LIAT 2020 would be intensely scrutinised by ECCA to determine LIAT 2020’s eligibility for an AOC.

Another burning issue is whether US authorities would allow an airline substantially controlled by Onyema, who is under indictment in the US for money laundering and fraud, to operate into the US territories of Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands.

On November 22, 2019, the US Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Georgia announced via a press release that Onyema had been charged with bank fraud and money laundering for moving more than $20 million from Nigeria through US bank accounts in a scheme involving false documents based on the purchase of aeroplanes.

According to US Attorney Pak, the indictment and other information presented in court says Onyema, a Nigerian citizen and businessman, is the founder and chairman of several NGOs that purport to promote peace across Nigeria, including the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony, International Center for Non-Violence and Peace Development and All-Time Peace Media Communications Ltd.

In years after the founding of Air Peace, Onyema travelled to the US and purchased multiple airplanes for the airline. However, over US$3 million of the funds used to purchase the aircraft allegedly came from bank accounts of these NGOs and Every Child Ltd.

The press release says that, beginning in approximately May 2016, a series of export letters of credit were used to cause banks to transfer more than US$20 million into Atlanta-based bank accounts controlled by Onyema. The letters of credit were purportedly to fund the purchase of five separate Boeing 737 passenger planes by Air Peace. The letters were supported by fake documents such as purchase agreements, bills of sale, and appraisals proving that Air Peace was purchasing the aircraft from Springfield Aviation Company LLC, a business registered in Georgia and owned by Onyema.

After Onyema received the money in the US, he allegedly laundered over $16 million of the proceeds of the fraud by transferring it to other accounts.

There have been many missteps by Antigua and Barbuda in attempting to establish a state-owned airline. Many lessons were learnt from the Antigua Airways experience which should enlighten the government as it seeks to resuscitate LIAT 2020 in partnership with Air Peace.