Air Peace, Festus Keyamo and the sad reality of Nigeria’s aviation sector, By Mohammed Dahiru Aminu

Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo.

The frustration and anger I feel towards Air Peace is overwhelming. Their constant disregard for their customers and audacity to offer solutions that, in essence, put more financial burden on those they have already wronged, makes me question why they are allowed to operate at all. The situation becomes even more infuriating when one considers the role of Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, who seems oblivious to the glaring issues within the country’s aviation sector. It feels as though both Air Peace and the government are working in tandem, not to improve the system, but to continually frustrate passengers, leaving them with little to no recourse for the mess they create.

A perfect example of this was my recent experience with Air Peace. I had a scheduled flight to Asaba, which they cancelled at the last minute without providing a valid reason. Instead of promptly offering a genuine resolution, they sent me an email offering to reroute or reschedule the flight at no additional cost. It sounded fair at first, but upon requesting a new flight, they had the audacity to ask for more money! It’s almost laughable, but this is the reality Nigerian travelers have to deal with daily. I reminded them of their earlier promise, insisting that I shouldn’t be charged extra for rescheduling, as it was their fault in the first place. In response, they reluctantly offered me a flight on Sunday – a full three days later – provided I refused to pay the extra fee. In what world is it acceptable to offer a flight three days after the scheduled date and expect the customer to be satisfied? I had urgent matters to attend to in Asaba, and they wanted me to wait until Sunday!

When I finally decided that I couldn’t wait for their arbitrary flight offers, I requested a refund, only to be told I would need to wait 21 working days to get my money back. Twenty-one working days! The audacity of this airline to take people’s money, fail to provide the service paid for, and then expect them to wait almost a month to receive a refund is mind-boggling. If I didn’t want to wait that long, they gave me the option to “expedite” the refund within 48 hours – at a cost, of course. In my case, I was told to pay 57,600 naira to expedite the refund for both myself and another passenger. It was clear to me that this entire scenario was not just an unfortunate incident, but a well-rehearsed scam designed to squeeze more money from already frustrated passengers.

Air Peace has gained notoriety for such antics. They cancel flights at the last minute, take people’s money, and then offer empty promises of rescheduling or rerouting without any intention of making things right. What’s worse is that even when they claim you can reroute at no additional cost, it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll come up with some excuse to demand more money from you. And if you’re foolish enough to agree to their terms, what’s the guarantee that they won’t cancel the new flight too? Air Peace is, quite frankly, a disgrace. They offer the option to upgrade to business class, but that, too, is a gamble. Why should anyone believe that they won’t cancel a business class flight just like they do with economy class? The sheer disrespect for passengers is alarming.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, when you finally ask for your money back, they will delay the process as much as they can. Twenty-one working days is an absurd amount of time to wait for a refund, especially when they were so quick to take the money. And yet, if you want it faster, they are more than happy to extort you for it. This isn’t just incompetence. This is robbery. Air Peace is nothing more than a predatory company taking advantage of the lax regulatory environment in Nigeria’s aviation sector. They thrive on making the lives of Nigerians more miserable while pocketing our hard-earned money.

I am still waiting to see if they will honor their promise to refund my money in 48 hours after paying the expedited refund fee. But based on the stories I’ve heard from other passengers, I have little hope. Many have told me that Air Peace rarely refunds the full amount they owe, and they always have some excuse ready as to why they can’t pay it all back. I’m beginning to realise that I may be one of their latest victims in a long line of passengers they’ve scammed.
But let’s not forget that the real issue here isn’t just Air Peace. It’s also the Nigerian government’s blatant failure to regulate and monitor the aviation industry. If Air Peace were operating in a properly regulated environment, they would have been shut down a long time ago. Their level of unprofessionalism and blatant disregard for their customers would never be tolerated in any serious country. But in Nigeria, they continue to operate with impunity, because the government is either too incompetent to do anything about it, or worse, they are complicit.

Take our current Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, for example. He was recently captured in a video, arguing that Nigeria cannot allow a foreign airline to operate its national carrier because, in his words, Nigeria is “bigger” and “more ambitious” than Togo. The sheer absurdity of this statement is enough to make anyone’s blood boil. How can you claim that Nigeria is more ambitious than Togo when our aviation sector is in complete shambles? There’s nothing ambitious about having an airline like Air Peace dominate our domestic routes, cancelling flights at will, and treating passengers like garbage. Keyamo’s arrogance and delusions of grandeur are exactly why the Nigerian aviation sector remains so backward. Our leaders refuse to confront the reality of their failures, choosing instead to make foolish comparisons with other African nations in a vain attempt to maintain their egos.

Perhaps if I had been on Air Peace’s London flight, I might have received better treatment. It seems Air Peace and their Aviation Minister patron, Festus Keyamo, are only concerned about flights to more prestigious destinations like London. Domestic passengers? We’re just afterthoughts. But this is what happens when a country’s leadership is out of touch with the needs of its people. Festus Keyamo and Air Peace are two sides of the same coin, united in their incompetence and arrogance, while ordinary Nigerians suffer in silence. It’s high time we, the people, demand better. Enough is enough.

Mohammed Dahiru Aminu (mohd.aminu@gmail.com) wrote from Abuja, Nigeria.