BY OLAPEJU OLUBI
Leading domestic flag carrier, Air Peace, has vehemently denied claims that it abandoned its passengers at London Gatwick Airport on Monday , April 8, 2024, because its return flight to Nigeria was overbooked, making the check-in area a bit chaotic as intending travelers were frustrated.
The airline’s management, in a statement, also dismissed a video circulating on social media suggesting that the airline closed the check-in counter earlier than anticipated to evade the crowd.
According to Air Peace, the video recording was a deliberate and malicious attempt to tarnish the image of the carrier by standing the truth on its head and spreading falsehoods gleefully.
“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 and thirdly, take off time was supposed to be 12:00 noon.
“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.
“It was also claimed that we overbooked our flight. 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 will continue to do its best to meet the needs of our passengers, but we also require passengers to work with us to ensure they can travel to their destinations by adhering to specified times. As always “Your Peace is Our Goal”, the airline explained.
