Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has directed Air Peace to prepare a compensation package for passengers affected by the prolonged delay of a Lagos-Enugu flight after its preliminary investigation found that the airline sent passengers an incorrect notification about the disruption.
Gatekeepers News reports that flight was scheduled to depart from Lagos at 6:45am on Monday but was rescheduled to 4:50pm, leaving passengers at the Murtala Muhammed Airport for several hours.
The incident followed a complaint by human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, who said the delay caused him to miss a scheduled court appearance in Enugu State. Effiong said he arrived at Terminal One of the Lagos airport around 5:50am after checking in for the flight the previous night.
He said passengers were kept waiting for about an hour before they were informed that the flight had been delayed until the afternoon. He also questioned why the airline had sent passengers a reminder at about 2:01am asking them to report for the flight despite the disruption.
Responding to the complaint, Michael Achimugu, NCAA Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, said the authority investigated the incident and found that the airline had sent the wrong notification.
“The Station Manager and Duty Manager have confirmed that the messages sent out were the ones you received, and that it was done in error,” Achimugu said.
He said the disruption was linked to the ripple effects of disruptions from the previous night but stressed that passengers should have been informed that their flight had been rescheduled.
Achimugu said Air Peace told the NCAA that the affected passengers had been taken to a hotel and would receive care until boarding time, although the authority was still verifying the claim.
The NCAA subsequently directed the airline to submit a compensation package for the affected passengers in line with Part 19 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2023.
“Timely and honest information is key, and there was a gap in this regard,” Achimugu said, adding that sending the wrong notification could not be treated as a force majeure incident.
He said Air Peace could avoid sanctions if it provided the required compensation and duty of care to the affected passengers, but warned that further sanctions could follow if the airline failed to comply.
The development comes amid concerns over flight disruptions in the domestic aviation sector. NCAA data for August showed that domestic airlines operated 7,961 flights, with 4,765 delayed and 36 cancelled. Air Peace was recorded with 1,330 delays out of 1,864 flights in the regulator’s dataset.
Air Peace, however, disputed the NCAA figures, saying it operated 2,564 flights during the month and that more than 700 flights were not captured in the regulator’s data. The airline also said only about 15 percent of its delays were caused by factors within its control.
