The executive secretary of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Jumoke Oduwole has called out Airpeace, an indigenous flight operator over its repeated failure to comply with announced flights schedules as well as its unreliable change of schedules.
Oduwole who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, challenged the company in a petition titled “Ease of Doing Business Intervention : Request for Urgent Intervention Regarding Service of Air Peace” which she addressed to Musa Nuhu, Director General, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA), regulators of activities of airlines in Nigeria.
Other key government stakeholders such as Hadi Sirika, Aviation Minister; Emmanuel Meribole, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation; Managing Director, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Rabiu Yadudu,Managing Director, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Babatunde Irukera, Chief Executive Officer, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) were also copied in the petition.
Giving an account of what she described as a misleading flight rescheduling by the company, she said;
“My personal experience today bears repeating as an example of what many air travelers in Nigeria, including other members of my team and I have experienced firsthand and on various occasions in the past months. On Saturday, April 22, 2023, two Air Peace tickets were purchased to return to Lagos from Akure with a departure time of 3:30PM to return from attending a programme in Omuo–Ekiti, Ekiti State, (near border with Kogi State). On Tuesday, April 25, 2023, a schedule change notification was sent informing of an earlier departure time from 3:30PM to 12:40PM. A subsequent notification was sent at 2:37AM today, April 28, 2023 informing of a further time change from 12:40PM to 8:30AM.
At 7:30AM, as soon as I became aware of the notification (one hour before the new departure time), I abandoned the event I had come to attend, and proceeded to immediately start making my way down to the Akure Airport, a two-and-a-half-hour journey on the shortest route from Omuo-Ekiti. The PEBEC Secretariat team also called the Air Peace Duty Manager in Akure, Mr Charles, and asked him to please reschedule the flight to a later time to allow more passengers time to see the notification and make the new flight time. He stated that there was nothing he could do.”
“I arrived at the Akure airport at 9:13AM (for what was to be a 12:40pm flight). The Air Peace Lagos-bound flight had departed. Being the only flight of the day from Akure to Lagos, and with another important official engagement to attend at 5PM in Lagos this evening, I was forced to proceed on an unplanned 5-hour road trip to Lagos. This is only one of many such instances of unacceptable inefficiency of this airline operator in recent times, to which most frequent air travelers in Nigeria can testify,” she said.
Oduwole said the implications of these unchecked actions by airline operators on the Nigerian economy, businesses and persons include wasted man hours, high cost and time of doing business in Nigeria, lack of operational transparency of airline operators, difficult ticket refund processes while selling tickets and tying down funds with real and opportunity costs to air travelers.
She called for an investigation of the recurrent situation and necessary actions to ensure that such issues are addressed with airline operators on pain of sanction in order to ensure that the growing monopolistic tendencies of poor service offerings by some of our air transport operators in Nigeria are curbed as a matter of great urgency
Dana air is also complicit. My 8.20am flight of 16th April from Abuja to Lagos was rescheduled to 6.30pm, which I changed for a return trip from Lagos to Abuja and was made to pay extra N12,700 for a fault not mine. My complaint did not get any respise. Travellers are exposed to very difficult challenges by airlines. I was informed that only Ibom air respects travel schedules.
Air Peace deserves severe sanctions for frequent flight cancellations. If you are unlucky to book their last flight from Owerri to Lagos, there are 90% chances that the flight would be cancelled. The worst problem is that they cancel their flights late into the night and passengers are usually stranded as most people spend all their money when they travel to their villages and may be left with nothing more than cab fare to get home when they arrive their destinations. Air
Peace does not provide transportation back to the city nor do they provide accommodation.
I had a nasty experience last week on Air Peace from Lagos to Benin on April 21 2023. I had come from the UK with my wife to attend an event in Benin on that day. While we were checking in they cancelled the flight and rescheduled it to 7am the following day. We got up to go to the airport early in the morning only to receive a notification that the flight had been rescheduled to 10am. The event we were attending started by 9am . Airpeace later shifted the flight to 2pm and even cancelled our return flight. We couldn’t attend the event after coming all the way from London.
Air Peace has the worst air travel business model in the world and should be severely sanctioned. The airline has apparently taken more than it can handle. No further route should be allocated to them.
It is because Ibom Air is relatively new, the Nigerian fa tor would soon set in.
This is your personal opinion and does not represent the minds of millions of Nigerians who patronised Air peace. How many indigenous airlines is able to stand the philanthropic gesture of Chiet Oyema Ugocnokwu? Nigerians love him
Really.
🤣🤣🤣 We all had bad experience with AirPeace. Before, they are the best. But now, the are the worst.
People like you are the problem we have in this country. So because he indulges in philanthropic works, customers who patronize Air Peace should suffer? One of the headless mobs!
It was a horrible experience for me and other passengers last Easter. A one hour flight from Lagos to Akure took three days. First day – cancelled, 2nd day cancelled, 3rd day – finally departed in the afternoon instead of in the morning as promised. In between the three days, the airline kept promising and postponing the flight time every 2 or so hours until it was obvious that it wouldn’t happen. Worst still, we were already checked in and couldn’t seek alternate means of travelling. I flew thousands of miles from Europe to Nigeria for an Easter Sunday event only to miss the event completely. Thanks to Airpeace.
If the regulators are not toothless, tt is hoped that they will take appropriate action and ensure affected passengers are adequately compensated for the inconveniences and losses which includes hotel bills, feeding, damages to health and business, and trauma. This is the good the industry regulators can do for Nigeria to deter this behaviour from operators like Airpeace.
When it comes to unreliable flight scheduling, Airpeace is the first. It’s 100% of the time they’ll change the flight schedules. I’m tired of hearing “We’re sorry” from their flight attendants on every flight. The interesting is that, they’re the only one flying to many routes so we’re left with no choice.
I think the management of Airpeace need to take a cursory look at there internal processes for scheduling flight operations critically as the negative impact of their disruptive operations is beginning to create serious frustrations among the travelling public. We are being taking for granted for far too long.
its as if we do not have any alternatives so its take it or leave it situation we seem to have found ourselves as a country.
This is one of the very few Nigerian public officeholders that I hold in high regard, but if she is peed-off because an airline did not hold up a flight for her (after being duly informed of the schedule change), then she should go take a long walk of a short peer…Nonsense! SMH
Is she the only one complaining? Haven’t we endured Air Peace enough? Look at how you’re sounding. So because she’s a government official, she shouldn’t express her experience with them? It has become a style with Air Peace, stop defending rubbish.
The issue of flight schedule delay and failure is a reoccurring decimal that has been for too long among our local flight operators and this is because no sanctions has been metted on them. Imagine you going for a business engagements and on that basis you book a flight the available flight whose time schedule you believe will enable you meet up; only to get to the airport and you hear it’s been rescheduled till later. Putting you under unnecessary pressure to meet up, that’s if you don’t entirely miss the business appointment. The worst of it is ,this operators don’t feel the need to do anything about it cause nothing is been done to them as sanctions or other disciplinary actions to make them sit up.
I have lost faith in AIRPEACE. It doesn’t matter if Airpeace picks immigrants from South Sudan free of charge, for me all those things are just to cover their inadequacies.
The synonym of Airpeace is Constant flight cancellation. And they keep lying with reasons like ” Technical issues or Bird strike”
I only pray for more serious competitors in the business. Monopoly is unhealthy in business.
Have you ever thought what millions of Nigerians are passing through due to wickedness of the government you are serving? You should be ashamed of yourself. You called Charles to reschedule the flight and he told you there is nothing he can do. People like you are reasons why flight are being rescheduled. Doing business in Nigeria is worst thing any one can imagine. Where is your Nigeria air, nonsense?
Tell Mamud to return the stolen mandate simple
My flight to Akure on Thursday was CANCELLED outrightly by Airpeacs with short notice. The flight is for 2:00pm and was notify by 1:19pm that it was canceled. I have to take the stress of traveling by road, I applied for refund but was told that I can only be refunded 75% of the fee I paid for a fault not mine.
AIRPEACE! AIRPEACE!! AIRPEACE!!!
Number 1 in flight rescheduling and it’s always due to operational issues
I’ve been reusing a ticket since January and they keep rescheduling the flight even till this last one on Wednesday
SMH
I don’t know whether to call it Juju, but despite Airpeace infaousness for flight delays and unwarranted rescheduling,I still fly with them. Maybe it’s because I’m an unrepentant late Comer myself, I don’t know. I’ve been delayed for an average of 4hours by them. I’ve heard of a Family that was delayed without food or compensation with little kids for10 hrs from Liberia to Nigeria. I think the best is for Airpeace to change and not mind people like me.
I think AirPeace airline Management and staff need to be called to order o this. As much as it may not be completely their fault, they need to understand the importance of flight trips and people’s time and schedules. Unfortunately, this same rescheduling and cancellation is done with their International flights as well especially South Africa and they remain unapologetic about it. So sad! Really! Really! So sad. I can’t start listing out my experiences with them and they just never bothered.