Passengers travelling from Kano to Abuja on Air Peace aircraft (P47425) were stranded at the Kano airport as the airline rescheduled its flight time from 4: 50 p.m. on Friday, February 2, to 1 a.m. on Saturday, February 3.
Passengers said the airline first sent emails to them that its original flight time of 4:50 p.m. had been moved to 8.55 p.m.
The travellers disclosed that after check-in and a long wait at the airport, the airline announced at 9:15 p.m. that the aircraft meant to lift the passengers from Kano would arrive at 10:20 p.m.
The airline at 10:20 p.m. announced that the aircraft would arrive instead at 1 a.m.
Some passengers were served carbonated drinks and biscuits after they called out the airline for shabby service and taking advantage of its passengers.
A passenger, Wole Adeyeye, who slammed the airline for the delay, said: “Who is going to be held responsible for us getting to Lagos or Abuja by 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. This is not right at all and definitely not fair to passengers.
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“It is really frustrating and disheartening the way passengers are being treated because what happens is that they take your money, get you to the airport and then dump you there.
“Nobody cares where you are going to or how you even get there.”
Another passenger who is lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Prof. A. Mohammed, said: “I feel very bad. The confusion here and time wasting, is it correct?
“If we are to leave here by 1 a.m., they should make accommodation available for us because it is not safe for us to go to our destinations in the wee hours of the morning knowing the insecurity of the country.
“After such a long time, they only offered us Fanta; is it Fanta we came to the airport to drink? How can you treat people this way?”
Also speaking, a woman, Mercy Abu, told NAN that the airline, in December 2023, delayed her flight multiple times till 1 a.m. after which she got to Lagos by 3 a.m.
Other passengers travelling from Kano to Lagos faced the same fate. The airline, after an uproar by passengers, said it could only accommodate 50 passengers to Lagos on a smaller jet stationed in Kano.
Speaking on the delay, Air Peace Station Manager, Muhyideen Sanni, appealed for calm as agitated passengers insisted all passengers must fly to Lagos together.
Sanni said the flight to Lagos was delayed due to a technical fault and urged passengers to volunteer to stay back at the airport while vulnerable passengers, including mothers with infants and the aged, be allowed on the smaller aircraft.
As motivation, he said, the airline would provide dinner for those who volunteered to stay back and a 25 per cent discount on their next flight with the airline.
There were no explanations for the delay of the Abuja flight.
Passengers bound for Abuja boarded at 12:45 a.m. and took off at 12:55 a.m.
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