When you hear a brand name with the word peace in it, you would hope that patronising the brand would give you a measure of peace.
For this particular airline brand, peace is the far opposite of what you get when you fly them.
I booked a return flight to Abuja from Uyo.
My return leg was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. I left for the airport as early as 8 a.m. as I didn’t want to miss the flight – having had my fair share of missed flights.
I was so eager to get to the airport on time that I even skipped breakfast.
After a smooth trip to the airport, I got to the counter in a good mood. In my usual manner, I even cracked a few jokes with the airline staff and lit up the space, something I enjoy doing as a matter of habit.
Following a brief whispering session with a guy armed with a walkie-talkie, the check-in person told me they were unsure of the status of my flight.
This was rather confusing to me.
I asked if they could check me in, he said no that the flight was not even registered but might be moved to 1:30 p.m. He advised that I return by 11a.m.
I walked away looking totally lost, knowing that yelling at the poor check-in guy was not going to help at all.
Someone noticed my despair and led me to a row of chairs to sit.
I sat and proceeded to take a two-hour uncomfortable nap.
When I awoke and managed to stretch the kinks out of my neck and shoulders, I went back to the check-in counter.
This time, I was checked in and I sent a silent hallelujah to God, thinking my travails were over and Air Peace would give me peace.
I had no idea that there was nothing peaceful about Air Peace. As a matter of fact, it seems tormenting their passengers is one of their favorite things to engage in.
Suddenly, a text came in some minutes past 1 stating that the flight had been cancelled due to bad weather.
I quickly marched to their boarding counter to ask what was going on.
A young man who seemed to be in charge confirmed that they were likely to cancel the flight due to bad weather but that the text I received was sent in error. He said it was actually meant for Akure-bound passengers and not for Uyo ones.
As I tried to soak this in, this gentleman with a calm and confident air about him showed up.
He listened to the young man at the counter repeat the rambling, barely coherent torrent of excuses he had confused me with before telling him straight up that he was spewing garbage.
The gentleman, whom I later learnt is a doctor, told the guy that Ibom Air flew to Uyo the same morning and was preparing to fly back again to the city later that afternoon.
As this was going on, the young man stepped away to go and devastate the Akure-bound passengers by informing them that their flight had been cancelled.
In typical Nigerian fashion, the passengers yelled and wailed and quietly dissipated one-after-the-other.
The same Air Peace in the same space of the hours I spent in that airport, cancelled Anambra flight and forcefully merged Anambra passengers with Asaba passengers for the Asaba route. I say forcefully because the passengers had no other option than to go to Asaba or forfeit the trip for that day.
Please, note that all of this happened after I had invested hours sitting on the cold hard airport chairs.
Meanwhile, they had sent a text message a day before the flight, reminding me to be on time.
Back to my Uyo flight.
Dr. Champion (you’ll see why I’m calling him that) cornered the thoroughly exasperated Air Peace young man, followed closely by me and a few other passengers.
Dr. Champion reminded him again that Ibom Air had flown and will fly again to the same Uyo that bad weather was preventing Air Peace from flying.
He asked if the flight was to be cancelled that they should please inform us so that he could buy an Ibom Air ticket whilst there was still a chance to do so and fly for his business.
The young man replied that it was at our discretion to go with Ibom Air if we wanted.
Then he uttered some of the most ridiculous words to come out of the mouth of a so-called professional.
He said to us that the equipment Ibom Air uses to asses the weather was different from the one they use at Air Peace.
Wow!
I had never heard such rubbish before. So, my brain bursted into a kaleidoscope of interpretations of those words.
Is it that the weather changes for different equipment? Is Air Peace using voodoo for their own weather permutation or is it Ibom Air that is voodoo-lised? Is there an Uyo in an alternate reality that Ibom Air is taking it’s passengers to?
Perhaps the simplest and truest interpretation is that Ibom Air is a far superior airline to Air Peace.
Please, note that this is my candid opinion and asides from flying Ibom Air a few times, I have no affiliation to them.
Anyways, following that statement, the good doctor calmly but firmly informed the young man that if his flight was cancelled with the excuse of bad weather, he would sue Air Peace and follow it up to the Supreme Court if necessary. I chimed in to say that I would support and find others that Air Peace have stolen their air travel peace so we can institute a class action.
There have been many tales of woe concerning Air Peace. So many that I would spend all year if I were to start recounting varied experiences with their prolonged delay of flights and impromptu last minute cancellations.
Some people have opined that they are stretching themselves too thin with too many routes and too few aircraft.
Some say that they yank off flights when they don’t sell enough tickets for a particular route.
Others contend that they pull out aircraft for quick private hire jobs and not give a damn what happens to passengers left stranded.
As I stood there at the Abuja airport, I made a mental calculation of what the anticipated Air Peace cancellation would cost me in terms of money alone without counting my time, peace and emotional health.
Airport drop off fare, airport pickup fare to return to town, another airport drop off fare to return the following day, unbudgeted hotel accomodation for a night.
I would have spent less to buy a fresh ticket from Ibom Air and fly back to Uyo (depending on what they are charging for a sudden over the counter ticket).
Thankfully, Air Peace recognised that the bad weather excuse would not fly and they reluctantly released a plane to fly us into Uyo. I was surprised to see that the flight was almost full to the brim.
Mr. Festus Keyamo (Minister of Aviation), if you get to read this per chance, it’s high time decisive action is taken against Air Peace in particular and other airlines in general who reward patronage of their business with tormenting those who patronise them.
It’s becoming a norm that will soon solidify into a new normal if nothing is done.
I hear Ibom Air is owned by the Akwa Ibom State government and that Lagos State government is set to float an airline.
I pray they will be as efficient as Ibom Air so that airlines like Air Peace will be forced to either become efficient and proper or disappear into oblivion.
Adanma is a lawyer, journalist, strategic communicator, social innovator and community advocate. She can be reached at adanmaodefa@gmail.com
