Afrigather 
By Mohammed Dahiru Aminu
The frustration and anger I really feel in the direction of Air Peace is overwhelming. The airline’s fixed disregard for its prospects and audacity in providing options that, in essence, put extra monetary burden on these it has already wronged, makes me query why it’s allowed to function in any respect. The scenario turns into much more infuriating when one considers the position of Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, who appears oblivious to the evident points inside the nation’s aviation sector. It feels as if each Air Peace and the federal government are working in tandem, to not enhance the system, however to repeatedly frustrate passengers, leaving them with little to no recourse for the mess they create.
An ideal instance of this was my current expertise with Air Peace. I had a scheduled flight to Asaba, which it cancelled on the final minute, with out offering a legitimate motive. As a substitute of promptly providing a real decision, the airline despatched me an e-mail providing to reroute or reschedule the flight at no further price. It sounded honest at first, however upon requesting a brand new flight, they’d the audacity to ask for more cash! It was nearly laughable, however that is the truth that Nigerian vacationers take care of each day. I reminded Air Peace of its earlier promise, insisting that I shouldn’t be charged additional for rescheduling, because it was its fault within the first place. In response, the airline reluctantly supplied me a flight on Sunday – a full three days later – offered I refused to pay the additional charge. In what world is it acceptable to supply a flight three days after the scheduled date and anticipate the client to be glad? I had pressing issues to take care of in Asaba, and so they needed me to attend till Sunday!
Once I lastly determined that I couldn’t look ahead to its arbitrary flight presents, I requested a refund, solely to be instructed that I would wish to attend 21 working days to get my a reimbursement. Twenty-one working days?!! The audacity of this airline to take folks’s cash, fail to offer the service paid for, after which anticipate them to attend nearly a month to obtain a refund is mind-boggling. If I didn’t need to wait that lengthy, I used to be given the choice to “expedite” the refund inside 48 hours – at a value, after all. In my case, I used to be instructed to pay N57,600 to expedite the refund for each myself and one other passenger. It was clear to me that this complete situation was not simply an unlucky incident, however a well-rehearsed rip-off designed to squeeze more cash from already annoyed passengers.
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Air Peace has gained notoriety for such antics. It cancels flights on the final minute, takes folks’s cash, after which presents empty guarantees of rescheduling their flights or rerouting them, with none intention of truly making issues proper. What’s worse is that even when it claims that you would be able to reroute at no further price, it’s nearly assured that it’ll give you some excuse to demand more cash from you. And when you’re silly sufficient to comply with its phrases, what’s the assure that it gained’t cancel the brand new flight too? Air Peace is, fairly frankly, a shame. It presents passengers the choice to improve to enterprise class; however that, too, is a big gamble. Why ought to anybody imagine that the airline gained’t cancel a enterprise class flight, similar to it did the economic system class one? The sheer disrespect to passengers is alarming.
As if this wasn’t dangerous sufficient, while you lastly ask in your a reimbursement, it can delay the method as a lot as it could actually. Twenty-one working days is an absurd period of time to attend for a refund, particularly when the airline was so fast to obtain cost within the first occasion. And but, in order for you it sooner, it’s more than pleased to extort you for this. This isn’t simply incompetence. That is theft. Air Peace is nothing greater than a predatory firm benefiting from the lax regulatory atmosphere in Nigeria’s aviation sector. It thrives on making the lives of Nigerians extra depressing, whereas pocketing our hard-earned cash.
I’m nonetheless ready to see if it can honour its promise to refund my cash inside 48 hours, after paying the expedited refund charge. However primarily based on the tales I’ve heard from different passengers, I’ve little hope, even for this. Many have instructed me that Air Peace hardly ever refunds the complete quantity it owes, and it all the time has some excuse prepared when it comes to why it could actually’t pay all of it again. I’m starting to understand that I could also be one among its newest victims, in a protracted line of passengers it has handled unfairly.
However let’s not neglect that the true concern right here isn’t simply Air Peace, it is usually the Nigerian authorities’s blatant failure to control and monitor the aviation business. If Air Peace had been working in a correctly regulated atmosphere, it will have been shut down a very long time in the past. Its degree of unprofessionalism and blatant disregard for its prospects would by no means be tolerated in any severe nation. However in Nigeria, it continues to function with impunity, as a result of the federal government is both too incompetent to do something about it, or, worse, it’s complicit.
Take our present Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, for instance. He was just lately captured in a video arguing that Nigeria can’t enable a international airline to function its nationwide service as a result of, in his phrases, Nigeria is “greater” and “extra bold” than Togo. The sheer absurdity of this assertion is sufficient to make anybody’s blood boil. How will you declare that Nigeria is extra bold than Togo when our aviation sector is in full shambles? There’s nothing bold about having an airline like Air Peace dominate our home routes, cancelling flights at will, and treating passengers like rubbish. Keyamo’s conceitedness and delusions of grandeur are precisely why the Nigerian aviation sector stays so backward. Our leaders refuse to confront the truth of their failures, selecting as a substitute to make injudicious comparisons with different African nations, in a useless try to pamper their egos.
Maybe if I had been on Air Peace’s London flight, I may need obtained higher remedy. It appears Air Peace and its Aviation Minister patron are solely involved about flights to extra prestigious locations like London. Home flight passengers? We’re simply afterthoughts. However that is what occurs when a rustic’s management is out of contact with the wants of its folks. Festus Keyamo and Air Peace are two sides of the identical coin, united of their incompetence and conceitedness, whereas peculiar Nigerians endure in silence. It’s excessive time we, the folks, demand higher. Sufficient is sufficient.
Mohammed Dahiru Aminu ([email protected]) wrote from Abuja, Nigeria.
