The management of Air Peace has arrested two customers at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, after exposing the airline’s poor service.
Dozens of passengers on Tuesday heavily criticised the airline for delaying the Lagos-Abuja flight from 07:20 p.m. to past 11:00 p.m.
Multiple videos on social media saw passengers lamenting the delay.
Shortly after the videos were shared on social media and several people expressed disappointment over Air Peace’s service, the management called for the arrest of the customers and seized their tickets.
One of them, Lagos-Abuja flight was arrested for capturing the moment customers ranted about their service and shared it on social media.
Ms Okafor explained that while she took the video of customers’ outbursts, one of the airline’s employees immediately told her that she would not be allowed to board.
“They said they asked me not to take videos, and they have people of my age at home and will deal with me,” she stated.
Ms Okafor added, “I was making reservations for another flight when they asked me to get into their van, and they said they were taking us to ‘Tango’ and gave us a form to fill. They threatened to deal with us and charge us to court today (Wednesday).”
She alleged that her boarding pass was seized.
Another individual, Samuel Paul, told Peoples Gazette that the airline initially delayed the flight for 40 minutes, then to 50 minutes, and Air Peace made no other comment until past 11:00 p.m.
“The fight was scheduled for 07:20, later they rescheduled it for 40 minutes, then to 50 minutes and later they didn’t even say anything, they just kept mute,” he said.
Mr Paul explained that the aircraft eventually arrived around 11:00 p.m., but passengers were informed that the pilot had closed for the day and “they have to go look for another pilot and people began shouting.”
He stated that the airline prevented him from boarding the flight after he “went physical” with a male Air Peace worker who did nothing about the situation.
“I asked the man why he was not doing anything, and when he didn’t respond, I pushed him in the face for not saying anything,” Mr Paul admitted. “They called the attention of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, and they arrested me and the lady and left us here without any comment from them.”
However, the airline CEO, Allen Onyema, did not return The Gazette’s request seeking comments on the matter.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the FAAN, Henrietta Yakubu, denied being aware of the situation. “Honestly, I am not aware. FAAN only manages the airport,” she told The Gazette.
Air Peace is often criticised for flight delays.
Aviation minister Hadi Sirika had directed airlines to reimburse passengers after a two-hour delay and provide refreshment and telephone calls or text messages for delays beyond one hour.
Air Peace flouted the directives on July 13 by delaying passengers’ flights for five hours without apologising. Scheduled to depart Lagos airport by 8:30 p.m., the flight did not take off until 11:05 p.m.
