Air Peace Nigeria’s leading airline, has stated categorically that it neither abandoned any of its passengers at Gatwick Airport nor overbooked the London-Lagos flight on Monday, April 8, 2024.contrary to video circulating on social media, describing allegations as an attempt to dent the airline’s hard earned image.
The airline also refuted allegations on the video that it closed the counter before the stipulated time, a situation the airline management has described as absolute falsehood.
The airline’s reaction is contained in a statement signed by its management made available to aviation journalists.
The airline stated that this video recording was a deliberate and malicious attempt to tarnish the image of Air Peace.
The airline said that,in the video, a number of falsehoods were claimed, specifically:
“Firstly, we closed our counter before time.
“Secondly, we overbooked our flight and our aircraft was full, hence we quickly closed the door and departed for Lagos.
“Thirdly, take off time was supposed to be 12:00noon”
Denying the allegations, Air Peace said, “We want to state categorically that the passenger, who the narrator escorted to the airport, came very late after the check-in phase was already concluded and the counter had closed.
“Gatwick Airport operates by slot timings allocated to each of the airlines operating out of this airport. The check-in operations of airlines are slot-based, and airlines take turns based on their approved times. Once your slot timing is up, you must vacate the counters for the next airline’s utilization. The check-in process ends at 09:00am, as advised in the Terms and Conditions section of our e-ticket and website, and the counter was vacated by Air Peace in accordance with our slot allocation at 09:55am.
“To ensure passengers do not miss their flights, we send them multiple messages at different times before their flight – 24hrs, 14hrs and 6hrs before flight departure.
“Departure for this flight was scheduled for 11:10am, so all processes needed to adhere to this time,” Air Peace said.
On the allegation that the airline overbooked, Air Peace management said, “The UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority can attest to the number of passengers on our manifest for the said flight. The aircraft left Gatwick with some seats unoccupied, so no overbooking took place.
“Gatwick Airport has CCTV coverage showing the time the passenger arrived at the airport/Air Peace counter and the time the maker of this video got to the airport. The late arriving passenger duly paid the no show fee, was booked to travel on a subsequent flight, and therefore the issue was resolved at the airport. It is disappointing that a different version of what transpired has been circulating.
Air Peace, the management said will continue to do its best to meet the needs of its passengers, but that the airline will also require passengers to work with the airline to ensure they travel to their destinations by adhering to specified times, adding that as always passengers peace is the airline’s goal.
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