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Air Peace, Aero refunded huge amounts for cancelled flights – NCAA - PUNCH
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority says Air Peace and Aero contractors refunded the airfares of thousands of passengers running into several millions of naira in 2024 due to cancelled and delayed flights.
The regulator stated that while Air Peace compensated 1,901 passengers in November 2024 for flight delays, cancellations, and cabin class downgrades, Aero Contractors compensated over 20 passengers throughout the year under review.
The NCAA disclosed this in a report posted on its X handle on Monday and signed by the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu.
The report stated that business class downgrades accounted for the largest percentage of compensation for Air Peace, costing the airline a 65 per cent discount to each of the affected passengers.
It said Air Peace also compensated passengers for unscheduled maintenance, technical issues, operational reasons, and aircraft swaps, among others.
On November 16, 2024, the agency said the airline recorded the highest passenger traffic (pax load) of 129 on flight 7170 from Lagos to Benin City, implementing a 25 per cent discount for operational issues.
A similar compensation was made on November 4, 2024, to 117 passengers on flight 7425 scheduled to fly from Kano to Abuja.
Air Peace had increased airfares on all local routes by over 100 per cent in November 2024, after the airline commenced its Lagos-London flight services.
Speaking with our correspondent, Achimugu promised to provide more information as further details unfold, saying the NCAA decided to put out the figures to confirm to passengers and industry stakeholders that airlines do pay compensations in Nigeria.
He further said publishing the compensations was for the NCAA to blow its own trumpet about the work it is doing.
He said, “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.
“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.”
