Air Peace has responded to the Kano Emirate which wrote a letter to NCAA to report it. The airline refused to delay its scheduled flight to make it possible for Emir of Kano and his team to join: ‘’If the Airline had agreed to halt and delay an aircraft already set to go – for another one hour – only for the door to be opened and the Emir and his entourage walk in, there would have been a very serious uproar in the media nationwide against both the airline and the Emir. This we pleaded with Isa Bayero to understand”.
“Our departure from Banjul was scheduled for 00:10hrs (local time) on 24th February, 2022, however, we departed Banjul at 01:19hrs and we landed at Lagos at 5:45am. Our connecting flight to Kano on the same Air Peace airline was for 6:15 hrs. This gave us only 30 minutes to make our flight to Kano.”
He said he personally called the Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyeama, to inform him of the precarious situation and requested him to assist by delaying their departing flight to Kano as a mark of respect to the revered Emir of Kano.
“He flatly refused and avowed that he will not do that. I personally took this as an insult and a flagrant show of disrespect to his highness and the Kano people at large.”He said it was very disappointing because the delay was the fault of the airline, adding that he was “aware that even with arriving international flights, departing aircrafts – local or international – are often delayed to enable arriving passengers join. Why should that be different with Air Peace Airline?”
He said despite having to check into a hotel at personal cost, the airline also requested them to pay a “No-show” fee when they wanted to rebook the next available flight of the airline which was by 7pm.
“This is an extreme case of insensitivity and callousness. In view of the foregoing, I feel strongly aggrieved and demand your kind intervention for restitution and for appropriate measures to be taken to stop this unwholesome development from happening in the future,” he added.
When contacted, a spokesman of the airline said he would get back to one of our correspondents. He had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.
The Director-General of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, confirmed receipt of the letter but declined further comment.
“I can only say we received the letter, we are working on it but I cannot say anything on it,” he said.
The Emirate has the capacity to charter a flight from Lagos to Kano. But if for any reason he misses a flight, as a leader, his men should adjust his schedules accordingly. Asking an airline to delay a flight is not fair in this modern Nigeria.
Yet, Air Peace is also wrong here. The Emir and his team were connecting with an Air Peace flight. If that originating flight was delayed, the airline should have planned ahead knowing that some of its customers would possibly arrive late and would require adjustments. Sure, in Nigeria, where flight routes are limited, that might not have been possible. But not delaying a scheduled flight is the right thing to do. Where it got it wrong was not making an alternative for those arriving from its originating delayed flight.
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People, Nigeria has important things to deal with. Air Peace, visit the Emirate and apologize. Next time you have an originating delay, plan ahead for clients. The Emirate, train your team to modulate: it is a no-go area to delay a scheduled flight.
Air Peace Statement
‘’Our attention has been drawn to a written complaint by one Isa Bayero to the DG of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) against Air Peace and which is published in the public domain.
‘’In the complaint, Mr. Isa Bayero alleged that Air Peace disrespected the Emir of Kano and the people of Kano by not delaying the Airline’s 6:15 am flight to Kano for the Emir! Rather than disrespect the reverred Emir of Kano, Air Peace did all that it could to protect the name and image of the emir from ridicule by not succumbing to what Isa Bayero demanded of the Airline.
‘’If the Airline had agreed to halt and delay an aircraft already set to go – for another one hour – only for the door to be opened and the Emir and his entourage walk in, there would have been a very serious uproar in the media nationwide against both the airline and the Emir.
‘’This we pleaded with Isa Bayero to understand, but he refused to accept.
‘’How could Isa Bayero want the management of Air Peace to halt and delay a fully boarded aircraft with doors shut and aircraft already moving, while our respected Emir and eight others in his entourage, including Isa Bayero, were still when I reported this statement to the Chairman, he did not believe me and insinuated that I might not have heard him rightly, because Isa Bayero was well acquainted with him and could not have said such.
‘’It is, therefore, to my utmost shock that we saw in the media this deliberate falsehood.
‘’It is so unfortunate that Isa Bayero will go to this extent to portray the Chairman and Air Peace in this manner.
‘’The Chairman of Air Peace has the highest regard for the traditional institution as it could be recalled that the Emir of Kano had previously issued a certificate of commendation to the Chairman for his philanthropic work to the people of Kano and as such holds the office of the Emir and all traditional institutions in highest esteem.
‘’We are, therefore, appalled that this statement would be made to incite such negativity towards the airline.
‘’We make bold to say that the Emir of Kano we know would have been offended to know that a flight already taxiing was halted and delayed for over 40 minutes for him.
‘’The Emir would never have supported this publication. He may not have even known our offers and our reasons given to Prince Isa Bayero.
‘’We reiterate our respects to our reverred Emir of Kano.’’
Update 1: Someone had noted that the two flights are not in the same itinerary. In other words, there are separate tickets. If that is the case, the Emirate has no case as Air Peace would not have known about the originating delay. I have written on the assumption that the two legs of the flights are in one ticket.
Update 2: There was the note that the company offered alternative routes. That was not disclosed in the original statement shared above. If that is the case, the airline has done everything right.
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Are you doing a balancing act or adjudicating a case here? Either way, I am not sure if you have succeeded in placating any party, at least from the standpoint of counter statements both parties offered.
If you don’t agree with the idea of delaying a flight to accommodate Emir and his entourage, then there’s no point mentioning that Air Peace was wrong, for not making alternative plan, that’s a business decision, which at the moment we do not know the cost implications, so cannot fly right now.
We do not know on whose mandate the Isa Bayero was acting, this is a country where those close to power issue statements and act as though they hold any important position. If Isa Bayero felt insulted, that doesn’t equate to insulting the Emir or people of Kano; we must learn how to isolate these things.
Again, who made the complaint to NCAA public? Because if the emirate felt that the way Emir was treated wasn’t befitting and then lodged a private complaint, it should have remained a confidential matter, without dramatizing it. Delaying a scheduled flight would make both Air Peace and Emir look bad, not delaying it would make Air Peace look like ethically sound organisation. The rest can be settled behind the scene.