The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has directed Air Peace to propose a compensation package for passengers affected by a delayed Lagos-Enugu flight after a preliminary investigation found that the airline sent passengers the wrong notification.
Newsonspot gathered that the development followed a complaint by human rights lawyer and activist, Inibehe Effiong, who accused the airline of irresponsibility after his scheduled 6:45am flight from Lagos to Enugu was delayed until 4:50pm on Monday.
Effiong said the disruption would cause him to miss a scheduled court appearance in Enugu State.
He explained that he arrived at Terminal One of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, at about 5:50am, having checked in for the flight the previous night.
According to him, passengers were initially kept waiting before airline officials announced that the flight had been delayed.
Effiong said he became suspicious after observing that passengers who were scheduled to travel to Enugu and Owerri on Sunday had been called by the airline, while Monday passengers were asked to wait.
He later alleged that Air Peace had cancelled the previous day’s Enugu flight and that the Monday disruption was linked to the earlier incident.
The lawyer also said the airline sent him a reminder at 2:01am on Monday asking passengers to report for the flight, despite the eventual rescheduling.
“I lost sound sleep, wasted my resources on flights and taxis … and I am going to miss a sensitive court appearance,” Effiong said.
He added that he met two other lawyers booked on the same flight, including one who also had a court hearing in Enugu that morning.
Effiong subsequently criticised the aviation regulators, alleging that they had failed to adequately hold the airline accountable.
Citing NCAA data, he claimed that Air Peace recorded 1,330 delays out of 1,864 flights in August 2026, representing 71.4 per cent, and questioned the absence of sanctions.
However, NCAA Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, said the regulator would investigate the disruption, while rejecting Effiong’s claim that the authority was incapable of addressing the airline.
Achimugu explained that the NCAA could not act on disruptions before they occurred and urged passengers to report incidents when they happened.
“The NCAA cannot treat cases in advance. It is not a miracle centre and cannot tell that a disruption would happen BEFORE it happens,” he said.
Following the investigation, Achimugu said the Lagos-Enugu disruption appeared to have resulted from the ripple effect of disruptions experienced by the airline on Sunday night.
He said Air Peace should have informed passengers scheduled to travel on Monday morning that their flight had been rescheduled.
According to him, a senior management official of the airline initially claimed that passengers had been informed. However, Effiong provided the NCAA with a screenshot of the message he received, which asked him to arrive early for the flight rather than informing him of the rescheduling.
Achimugu said the airline’s Station Manager and Duty Manager subsequently confirmed that the message was sent in error.
“The Station Manager and Duty Manager have confirmed that the messages sent out was the one you received, and that it was done in error,” he said.
He added that the airline’s officials acknowledged that passengers should have been informed about the rescheduling.
The NCAA spokesman also said Air Peace claimed to have taken affected passengers to a hotel, where they would receive care until boarding time, although the authority was still verifying the claim.
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Achimugu said the NCAA had directed the airline, in line with Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023, to develop a compensation package for the affected passengers and communicate the details to the regulator.
“Timely and honest information is key, and there was a gap in this regard,” he said, adding that sending the wrong notification did not amount to a force majeure incident.
According to Achimugu, Air Peace would not face sanctions if it provided the affected passengers with the required compensation and duty of care.
He, however, warned that heavier sanctions could follow if the airline failed to meet its obligations.
The NCAA official also clarified that sanctions were not automatically imposed for every flight disruption, noting that their application was guided by the relevant regulations.
He expressed sympathy with the affected passengers, particularly Effiong, saying: “You should not have been told to come to the airport for a flight that was not going to operate.”
The development comes amid an ongoing dispute over flight-delay figures released by the NCAA.
The NCAA’s August 2026 summary of domestic airline disruptions showed that 15 carriers operated 7,961 flights during the month, with 4,765 delayed and 36 cancelled.
Air Peace was listed as having 1,330 delayed flights out of 1,864 operated flights, representing 71.4 per cent.
Air Peace, however, disputed the figures, saying it operated 2,564 flights during the month and that the NCAA’s data excluded more than 700 of its flights.
The airline also said internal factors accounted for only about 15 per cent of its delays.
Efforts to obtain a comment from Air Peace spokesperson, Efe Osifo-Whiskey, on the Lagos-Enugu disruption were unsuccessful as of the time of filing the report.
Phone calls made up to 12:39pm and a follow-up text message sent at 1:34pm had not received a response.
