Air Peace has said its
passengers were not abandoned at Gatwick, London Airport when it returned to
Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The carrier also clarified that
it did not engage in overbooking of flights, as those who could not meet up
with the scheduled time arrived at the terminal when the counters for check -
in had closed.
In a statement signed by its
spokesman, Stanley Olisa, the airline noted that information circulating in
some platforms were carried out by persons intending to misrepresent the
situation.
The statement read: "Our
attention has been drawn to a video circulating on social media that Air Peace
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.
"This video recording was a
deliberate and malicious attempt to tarnish the image of Air Peace.
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.
“Thirdly, take off time was
supposed to be 12:00noon. We want to state categorically that the passenger,
who the narrator escorted to the airport, came very late after 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”.
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