When Gbenga Adeosun got to the Murtala M u h a m m e d Airport, Lagos, at 5.30pm on the fifth Sunday of last August, with the confidence that he was going to be in Abuja before the next morning to meet up with an important business meeting. What he did not envisage was the cancellation of the Abujabound flight by 9.00pm on that same day.
People like Adeosun usually prefer to fly when they travel interstate because they believe that air travels are reliable. But this was not the case that Sunday evening. Adeosun’s excess luggage along with those of other passengers of the Aero Contractors flight bound for Abuja had already been checked in. They were supposed to take off at 7.20pm. Initially, the time was moved backwards. “My flight was supposed to be for 1:30pm on Sunday, but before I left home, Aero Contractors sent a message that the flight was moved to 19:20 (7:20pm). So, I moved my schedule forward and got there (the airport) around 5:30pm,” he said.
“At the airport, I went through the normal procedures. They gave us our tickets, they tagged our excess luggage and took it in. When we moved to departure, they checked us in. I called all my family members to tell them goodbye, we were just waiting for them to announce that we should go to the tarmac. But instead of that, the announcement we got was the cancellation of the flight. They did not give us any reason.” The flight was cancelled by 9.00pm that day, when most passengers had readied their mind for the trip and bade their loved ones goodbye. Now, the passengers had to return to the ticketing counter to inform them about the development because according to Adeosun, the staff were out of the loop. “All the staff at departure were not aware, we were the ones telling them about the cancellation. They could not even readily give any reason; they were in the dark.
There was a lot of demonstration and commotion, in fact, some passengers were banging on the windows and tables. Some people wanted their money refunded, so the staff started refunding the money of the people there. But at the time, there was no flight anybody could catch. They appealed that we should wait till the next morning but at that point, the passengers couldn’t believe them anymore.” Luckily, Adeosun got a Bolt taxi to take him back home but others who had not expected that exigency were stranded at the airport, especially those who lived far away. He did not collect his cash back because of the meeting the next day but he did not believe them either when they said their flight would leave the next morning by 10.30am.
He was stunned that such a thing could happen even after Aero Contractors advertised that they could be relied upon by their customers. At 2.00pm the next day, his flight touched ground in Abuja and save for the grace he had, he could have missed his meeting. Gift’s (not her real name) case is almost the same. Two years back, she booked an Air Peace flight from Abuja to Lagos to attend her friend’s wedding which was on a Saturday where she was to serve as one of the bridesmaids. The flight was supposed to take off at 6.00am on the preceding Friday, but she missed the traditional marriage because Air Peace cancelled the flight without informing the passengers beforehand. It was only at the airport she found out.
It did so without making any provisions for the passengers. “I had to spend money I didn’t budget for to fly with Dana. And I missed the traditional wedding. It was crazy how upset the passengers were. It may seem like it was just a wedding but it meant a lot to me,” Gift said. Another air traveller who gave his name as Martin told our reporter that his LagosAbuja flight with Air Peace was supposed to leave by 6.10pm on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, only for him to get a notice on Tuesday evening that his flight had been cancelled. The message had no further directions. It was Martin who had to call the customer care representative who rebooked him for a 4.00pm flight on Thursday, but early on Thursday, morning, he got another notice that the flight was rescheduled for 1.10pm that day. He had made plans to meet with an old friend at Ikeja that Thursday afternoon but the inconsistency of Air Peace made him cancel that reunion