The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has directed Air Peace to compensate passengers affected by the delay of a Lagos-Enugu flight after finding that the airline sent passengers the wrong notification.
The flight, scheduled to depart Lagos at 6:45am on Monday, was rescheduled to 4:50pm, leaving passengers stranded at the airport for several hours.
The incident followed a complaint by human rights lawyer and passenger, Inibehe Effiong, who said the delay could cause him to miss a scheduled court appearance in Enugu State.
Effiong said he arrived at Terminal One of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, at about 5:50am after checking in the previous night, but was later informed that the flight had been delayed.
“Apparently, they cancelled yesterday’s flight to Enugu,” he said.
He also questioned why the airline sent passengers a reminder at 2:01am despite the disruption, saying he had lost sleep and incurred additional expenses on flights and taxis.
NCAA Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, said the regulator investigated the complaint and confirmed that Air Peace had sent the wrong notification.
“The Station Manager and Duty Manager have confirmed that the messages sent out was the one you received, and that it was done in error,” Achimugu said.
He said Air Peace should have informed passengers that the flight had been rescheduled and directed the airline to prepare a compensation package in line with Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023.
“We have asked that the airline, in compliance with Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023, come up with a compensation package for affected passengers and let us know in good time,” he said.
Achimugu said timely and honest information was important, adding that sending the wrong notification was not a force majeure incident.
He said Air Peace would not face sanctions if it provided the required compensation and duty of care, but warned that further sanctions could follow if it failed to comply.
“You should not have been told to come to the airport for a flight that was not going to operate,” he said.
The development comes amid concerns over flight delays in Nigeria. NCAA data for August showed that 4,765 of 7,961 domestic flights were delayed, while 36 were cancelled.
Air Peace disputed the figures, however, saying the regulator omitted more than 700 of its flights from the data.
