The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has directed Air Peace to compensate passengers affected by a delayed Lagos-Enugu flight on Monday.
The directive followed a preliminary investigation by the aviation regulator, which found that the airline had mistakenly sent passengers an incorrect notification about the flight.
The incident followed a complaint by human rights activist and lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, who accused Air Peace of irresponsibility and impunity after his Lagos-Enugu flight was delayed until the evening.
Effiong said in a post on X on Monday that the delay would prevent him from attending a scheduled court appearance in Enugu State. He subsequently demanded an apology and a refund of his fare.
According to Effiong, he arrived at Terminal One of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos at about 5:50 a.m. for the airline’s scheduled 6:45 a.m. flight, having checked in the previous night.
“I am scheduled to appear in court in Enugu State this morning for a case that is slated for definite hearing,” he said.
The lawyer said he became suspicious after airline staff called only passengers scheduled to travel to Enugu and Owerri on Sunday, while passengers booked on Monday’s flights were asked to wait.
“Apparently, they cancelled yesterday’s flight to Enugu,” he said.
Effiong said passengers were kept waiting for about an hour before airline officials announced that the flight had been rescheduled for 4:50 p.m.
He accused Air Peace of taking passengers “for granted endlessly”, citing the airline’s large fleet and its occasional role in repatriating stranded Nigerians.
The NCAA, however, said it would investigate the disruption and rejected Effiong’s suggestion that the regulator was incapable of holding the airline accountable.
Responding to Effiong’s post on X, the NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, said the authority could not be expected to intervene before a disruption occurred.
“The NCAA cannot treat cases in advance. It is not a miracle centre and cannot tell that a disruption would happen BEFORE it happens. When it does happen, you report to the NCAA,” Achimugu said.
Following the investigation, Achimugu told Effiong that the flight disruption was caused by the ripple effects of disruptions that occurred on Sunday night.
He said a senior management official of Air Peace initially claimed that passengers had been informed of the change. Effiong, however, disputed this and provided the NCAA with a screenshot of the notification he had received, which instructed passengers to arrive early for the flight.
“The Station Manager and Duty Manager have confirmed that the message sent out was the one you received, and that it was done in error,” Achimugu said.
The NCAA’s latest intervention comes against the backdrop of concerns over flight disruptions in Nigeria’s domestic aviation sector.
The regulator’s August 2026 disruption report showed that 15 domestic airlines operated 7,961 flights during the month, of which 4,765 were delayed and 36 were cancelled.
Air Peace was recorded as having 1,330 delayed flights out of 1,864 operated during the month, representing a delay rate of 71.4 per cent.
Air Peace disputed the NCAA’s figures, however, saying it operated 2,564 flights in August — more than 700 above the number recorded by the regulator.
The airline also said its internal review found that only 391 delays, or about 15 per cent of its August operations, were attributable to factors within its control. It said most of the delays resulted from external factors, including airport congestion, industrial action, adverse weather and bird strikes.
