Travel News

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has advised air travellers to plan for flight delays to Port Harcourt following an incident involving an Air Peace aircraft.

The FAAN issued the advisory in a statement on Sunday, signed by Obiageli Orah, director of public affairs and consumer protection.

An Air Peace plane, on Sunday morning, reportedly veered off the runway after landing at the Port Harcourt International Airport.

The airline, in a statement, said all passengers disembarked safely, with no injuries recorded.

Speaking on the development, the FAAN said flight P47190, with registration number 5N-BQQ, took off from Lagos and arrived at the Port Harcourt International Airport around 7:45 am.

“The aircraft overshot runway 03 upon landing. We are relieved to report that there were no casualties,” the authority said.

“Evacuation of the 127 passengers has been completed safely with no casualties.

“In the interim, please plan for flight delays for any departing flights to Port Harcourt.”

The FAAN said additional information would be shared as it becomes available, while reaffirming its commitment to ensuring passenger safety and security.

Luxury flats at the top of The Shard have been left empty after Rachel Reeves’s non-dom tax raid drove away wealthy buyers, the property’s Qatari backers say.

Real Estate Management (Rem), which is owned by the State of Qatar, said that it was “very disappointed” with lack of progress made on letting out 10 luxury flats on the 72-storey skyscraper’s upper levels, which are priced at between £30m and £50m each.

Rem said Ms Reeves’s tax changes for wealthy individuals was “driving many such investors away” from Britain and hammering demand for ultra-expensive property.

“The long-heralded change in UK tax rules applied to overseas residents, which were accelerated by the current UK administration to apply from April 2025, [has] had the feared impact of driving many such investors away from the UK to escape double taxation of their worldwide income,” it said in accounts.

“This group of wealthy overseas investors has been the core constituency for super-prime lettings in the UK.”

Ms Reeves abolished the non-dom status in April this year, while also bringing in sweeping inheritance tax changes. Those changes have been blamed for driving some of Britain’s wealthiest people away from the country.

The flats, on floors 53 to 65 of The Shard, were thought to have been priced between £30m and £50m after the skyscraper opened in 2012.

They have been empty ever since, amid speculation that Qatar’s royal family kept the flats for their own use while visiting London.

Rem is an investment adviser tasked with letting out the flats. The properties are owned by another Qatar-backed entity, LBQ Four.

The flats were made available for occupation in late 2023 after undergoing construction works, but despite “every effort” to let them their availability coincided with a “severe contraction” in the ultra-prime property market, Rem said.

Rem’s portfolio includes the Shard Quarter, The News Building and Park House on Oxford Street. It also owns The Shard’s viewing gallery, which has reported “difficult trading”.

Qatari Diar, the property division of the state’s sovereign wealth fund, bought 80pc of the skyscraper in 2008 after the project ran into financial difficulties. It later increased its stake to 95pc, with developer Sellar Property Group owning the remainder.

The difficulties at The Shard capped off a difficult period for Rem, with pre-tax profit falling from £8.1m to £7.5m in the year ending December 2024.

Rem also said it was struggling with recruiting and keeping skilled managerial and building staff, as well as the workforces of business partners contracted to undertake services across its property portfolio.

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Donald Trump’s tariffs and falling commercial property values had created a “brew of uncertainty, investor hesitancy and a lack of stability”, it said.

The Treasury and Rem have both been contacted for comment.

BY Olasunkanmi Akinlotan and Princess Etuk

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has asked passengers to expect flight disruptions and delays following a Sunday morning flight incursion that occurred at the Harcourt International Airport runway.

The PUNCH earlier reported how Air Peace aircraft, operating Flight P47190 from Lagos to Port Harcourt, experienced a runway excursion upon landing at the Port Harcourt Airport.

The airline’s spokesperson, Osifo-Whiskey Efe, told The PUNCH that aside from veering off the runway, all passengers and crew members disembarked unhurt from the aircraft.

The airline last recorded an incident in May 2025, when one of its aircraft collided with a large antelope on the runway at the Asaba airport. The impact decimated the animal but did not stop the aircraft from flying to Abuja.

In a statement, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at FAAN, Obiageli Orah, said the evacuation of the 127 passengers was completed safely with no casualties.

She said, “Air Peace flight P47190, registration number 5N-BQQ, departed from Lagos and landed at Port Harcourt International Airport at approximately 0745 hours.”

“The aircraft overshot runway 03 upon landing.

“We are relieved to report that there were no casualties. Evacuation of the 127 passengers has been completed safely with no casualties. In the interim, please plan for flight delays for any departing flights to Port Harcourt. Further details will be provided as they become available. FAAN remains committed to the safety and security of the passengers.”

While speaking on the development, Air Peace official, Efe, said, “Air Peace confirms that its Flight P47190, operating from Lagos to Port Harcourt this morning, had a runway excursion after landing safely at the Port Harcourt International Airport.

“The aircraft veered slightly off the runway without any damage. All passengers disembarked safely and calmly, and no injuries were reported.”

 The airline spokesperson, however, reassured passengers of “unflinching commitment to maintaining the highest standards of safety in all our operations.”

Germany has agreed to let some UK airline passengers breeze through passport e-gates at its airports by the end of August, as announced by the Cabinet Office on Thursday. Initially, this fast-track entry will be available for frequent travellers.

The full roll-out for all UK nationals is on the horizon once Germany completes updates to its systems, paving the way for the EU's much-anticipated Entry/Exit System (EES). The agreement is part of a bilateral treaty signed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during Merz's inaugural official trip to the UK.

Post-Brexit, UK holidaymakers have typically faced queuing at manned desks for passport checks at EU airports, missing out on the swift automated gates equipped with facial recognition technology. This has resulted in lengthy waits, especially during busy travel times.

The change is seen as a significant step in addressing one of Brexit's most tangible consequences. A UK-EU summit in May confirmed that there are no legal hurdles preventing UK citizens from using EU e-gates.

Following this, the Cabinet Office said that Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Portugal had already expanded e-gate access for British travellers.

EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said: "E-gates can make the slog of travelling through an airport that bit easier, which is why I have been working with the EU and member states to get more airports opened up to Brits abroad."

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: "We're pioneering a new era of European rail connectivity and are determined to put Britain at the heart of a better-connected continent.

"The Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie - in just a matter of years, rail passengers in the UK could be able to visit these iconic sites direct from the comfort of a train, thanks to a direct connection linking London and Berlin."

She also highlighted the transformative potential of the agreement, which aims to offer millions a "faster, more convenient and significantly greener alternative to flying" for travel between the UK and Germany.

In May, the UK and Switzerland penned a memorandum of understanding to tackle obstacles hindering a direct rail connection. Shortly after, Eurostar revealed ambitions for new routes that would directly link the UK with Germany and Switzerland.

The company has put forward plans to operate trains from London St Pancras International to Frankfurt and Geneva starting in the "early 2030s". Travellers could expect journey times of around five hours to Frankfurt and five hours and 20 minutes to Geneva.

Currently, Eurostar enjoys exclusive rights to operate passenger services through the Channel Tunnel, yet various groups are crafting strategies to introduce competing services.