April 9, (THEWILL) – The largest West African carrier, Air Peace, has denied a video circulating on social media that the airline, not only abandoned their passengers at Gatwick Airport but closed their counter before closing time because the aircraft was overbooked on our London-Lagos flight on Monday, April 8, 2024.
Putting the records straight, Air Peace in an official statement issued Tuesday, signed by the management stated that the person who made that video was not even a passenger of Air Peace, but someone who escorted the passenger that came late to the airport for his Air Peace flight to Lagos.
According to Air Peace, this false video recording was both a deliberate and malicious attempt to tarnish the image of Air Peace. In the video, this man claimed amongst other falsehoods that:
Explaining further, Air Peace stated that the passenger he escorted to the airport came very late after the check-in phase had already concluded and the counter closed.
“Gatwick Airport operate 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 the approved times. Thus, Air Peace and other airlines have no control over these timings. Everything is regulated by the airport authorities and Air Peace will never be found wanting. Once your slot timing is up, you must vacate the counters for the next airline’s utilisation. Air Peace departure slot out of Gatwick is 11:10 am so, the airport counter closure for check-in is at exactly 09:55 am. Boarding starts at 10:10 am and take-off is at 11:10 am”.
“Again, the take-off time for this flight was 11:10 am. Air Peace left on schedule at 11:10 am and not 12:00 noon as he claimed. This is a blatant lie by the maker of this video.”
On the overbooking allegation, Air Peace said “Air Peace never overbooked its flight as he claimed falsely, hence we hurriedly left with the aircraft. It is gravely wrong for the maker of this video to make such false allegations without proof. 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 still left Gatwick with over 50 seats unoccupied so how could we have hurriedly closed the counter because we overbooked? Unbelievable.”
“The maker of this video showed his hate for Air Peace and was confronted by an Air Peace staff at the Gatwick Airport. The passenger he escorted equally disdained his behaviour. The passenger graciously paid his penalties for coming late because he knew he had come late to the airport.
“To ensure customers do not miss their flights, we send them multiple messages at different times before their flight- 24hrs, 14hrs and 6hrs before flight departure. Also, we advise passengers, as stated in the Terms and Conditions section of our e-ticket and website, to report for check-in 6 hours before international flight departures.”
It further pointed out that “This may be one of the people, who have been hired to tarnish the image of Air Peace for daring to fly the London route. This is one falsehood too many that we will never allow to happen. This did not even come from our passenger but from someone who came to the airport deliberately to tarnish the image of the airline.
“This airport has CCTV coverage showing the time this passenger arrived at the airport/Air Peace counter and the time the maker of this video got to the airport. We are talking to our lawyers as we will never allow this to go unpunished”, Air Peace concluded.
About the Author
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
