Airline hinges incident on bird strike, aviation fuel scarcity

Passengers of Air Peace have protested the rescheduling of their flights at Asaba Airport for 12 hours by the airline.

This is as the airline attributed the recent delays and rescheduling to bird strikes, aviation fuel scarcity and an airside incident with the ground equipment of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc.

The protest followed the rescheduling of an Air Peace flight from Asaba to Lagos scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. yesterday, leaving affected passengers with an almost 12-hour delay.

One of the passengers, Pius Isiekwene, who spoke with The Guardian, said he received notification of the change barely 60 minutes before the scheduled departure, adding that the airline cited unscheduled maintenance as the reason for the rescheduling.

Isiekwene said the development had disrupted the plans of several passengers, some of whom had checked out of their hotels or travelled from other towns to catch the morning flight.

He said: “I had to go back home from the airport. Several of the passengers didn’t get the notice until they got to the airport today (Wednesday). There is no accountability in the industry, especially among the airlines.

“In other places, passengers are taken care of, and at times, they are put in hotels with necessary refreshments, but the reverse is the case here. Passengers are taken for granted by the airlines and by the authorities responsible. This is simply unfair to the passengers.”

He further alleged that inadequate capacity among domestic airlines was contributing to the recurring disruption of passengers’ travel plans.

But a source close to Air Peace attributed the airline’s recent operational challenges to a combination of factors, including an incident involving equipment belonging to NAHCO Plc at the Lagos Airport, two bird strike incidents on Sunday, and scarcity of aviation fuel.

The source, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said it was unfortunate that some of the airline’s flights had been disrupted in recent weeks.

He specifically said that the incident involving NAHCO equipment affected the airline’s operations after flights had already been planned for the summer period.