Air peace, Aero refund passengers millions for canceled flights

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has revealed that two major airlines, Air Peace and Aero Contractors, refunded millions of naira to passengers in 2024 due to flight cancellations, delays, and other operational challenges.

According to a recent report shared by the NCAA, Air Peace led the compensations, reimbursing 1,901 passengers in November 2024 for issues such as flight delays, cancellations, and cabin class downgrades. Aero Contractors, on the other hand, compensated over 20 passengers throughout the year. The report, signed by NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, emphasized the regulator’s commitment to protecting passengers’ rights.

A breakdown of the report revealed that downgrades from business to economy class accounted for the highest percentage of compensations by Air Peace, with affected passengers receiving a 65% refund. The airline also compensated passengers for disruptions caused by unscheduled maintenance, technical issues, operational changes, and aircraft swaps.

Significant compensations were noted on specific flights. For example, on November 16, 2024, Air Peace provided a 25 per cent discount to 129 passengers on flight 7170 from Lagos to Benin City due to operational issues. Similarly, on November 4, 2024, 117 passengers on flight 7425 from Kano to Abuja received similar compensation.

Notably, the report comes against the backdrop of Air Peace increasing fares on domestic routes by over 100 per cent in November 2024 after launching its Lagos-London flight services.

Michael Achimugu explained that the NCAA decided to publicize these figures to reinforce its transparency and highlight its role in ensuring passenger protection. “This is to the CRDCU (Central Result Delivery Coordination Unit) headed by Hadiza Bala Usman because they have to assess the work that we do. We have found out that people think the compensations that we talk about are not authentic.

“That is why we are putting facts and figures together. It is an attempt by the NCAA to be transparent and also to make the public as well as other instrumentality of government aware of this. This will also let stakeholders know that the NCAA is working and airlines in Nigeria actually pay compensation,” Achimugu said.

He added that the publication aims to inform passengers, industry stakeholders, and government bodies about the NCAA’s efforts. “People come online to make viral videos but when the NCAA resolves those issues, they don’t come back to say this particular issue has been resolved. So we would start blowing our own trumpets now and that is what we are doing.” he said.