Air Peace Airline, Be Efficient For Once!

“These touts picked only bags whose owners paid for extra luggage or paid bribes to get preferential treatment of the luggages by Air peace airline”. 

BY EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO

He said to me, it looks like nothing practically works in Nigeria of this Bola Tinubu’s presidency.

He added: there is a general climate of lawlessness and disorder in all facets of life in Nigeria in both the ways the managers of the private as well as public sectors of the National economy interfaces with Nigerians who are their clients.

This brief conversations between me Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko and Dr. Ifesinachi Nwanekanma, a medical practitioner of Nigerian descent who came back for the Yuletide from Melbourne Australia to be with his extended family members in Imo State, took place on 24th of December last year.

This happened on the eve of 2024 Christmas at the Airport in Owerri (Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport) after we alighted aboard the Air peace airline from Abuja which happened to be the first flight of the day.

The trigger for this conversation was the fact that the airline deliberately left our luggages in Abuja but all those passengers that paid for extra luggages got all their bags in Owerri. Those of us with merely one bag were asked to return on that day by 5 pm.

Mind you, from the airport to Owerri would cost you N28,000 on airport taxi and if you need to make it back for your bag, you need to spend N28k twice. This means that after one paid about N700,000 for a two-way ticket from Abuja to Owerri, you would in addition, cough out nearly N60,000 to return for your accompanying bags which were deliberately left back in Abuja by the touts working in Air PEACE airline as staff.

This was one of my saddest experiences since I started flying for over three decades. Tragically, these bags never made it to Owerri by 5pm of December 24th 2014 but came in by 9pm which cost another N60,000 to return the next morning for the bags. If this is not the height of touting and thuggery by Air peace airline, what then is it? Air Peace airline represents whatever is not working in Nigerian aviation sector.

Air Peace airline is so badly run so much so that the crass incompetence of the majority of their staff especially at their Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport end is very loudly pronounced and provocative.

To make the story more broadly understood for the avoidance of semantic doubts, on 24th December 2024, we boarded the early morning flight from Abuja to Owerri. Air peace airline showed up at exactly the scheduled time. Some of use were so delighted that we verbally commended the guys who checked us in. Sadly, we never knew that some of us, especially those who had bags that did not attract extra cost for extra luggage, were deliberately left over in Abuja whilst we flew into Owerri so smoothly.

The smoothness of that flight evaporated for many of us whose bags were intentionally abandoned in Abuja.

To show how annoying this intentionally inefficiency and corruption of Air Peace airline staff is, I was to travel to ARONDIZUOGU straight from the Airport at Owerri but my bag that has my medication and things I bought for my kinsmen and my beloved mum, was not with me.

This changed the trajectory of my Christmas celebration because this disappointment meant that I had to stay back at my place in Owerri even when I never made any budget for that. By the way, the bags never came same day by 5pm as we were told not until at about 9 pm and the staff failed to inform anyone.

On the Christmas morning, when I’m supposed to be going for Christmas Pontifical High Mass in ARONDIZUOGU, I couldn’t, because I was still putting on my one boxer for 48 hours, one singlet also for 48 hours and the clothes I wore to travel to Owerri from Abuja a day before Christmas.

This was a very sad experience. So, by 7 am on Christmas morning, I put a call through to Air Peace at Owerri Airport and then was told that my bag arrived the previous night but that we couldn’t be contacted because it was so late that the staff were already home. I then spent about N60k to go and bring my bag that was less than 13 KG back and forth the Owerri Air port.

All together, I spent an average of N180,000 just to run around for my bag mainly because of my medication I bought from Malaysia. Air Peace airline, this is unforgiveable.

Sadly, as I was complaining, I then saw a news break whereby the owner of this unrepentantly incompetent Air Peace Airline, Mr. Onyema Ugochukwu was addressing the media and making unsubstantiated and weird allegations that some persons are plotting to paint the company bad.

This same company that many of us the passengers wept in agony because the baggage check in staff in Abuja were just pure TOUTS who picked and chose which of the checked in baggage would be sent to the same plane in which the owners were.

These touts picked only bags whose owners paid for extra luggage or paid bribes to get preferential treatment of the luggages by Air peace airline.

This is the worst kind of flying experience I have had in over 30 years of flying all around the World.

Aware of how annoyed some of us were, the chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, pre-emptively addressed a press conference in God knows where and strangely alleged that the plot to defame the airline is becoming dangerous and scary.

Onyema spoke during a stakeholders’ meeting on the theme “Finding lasting solutions to flight disruptions,” where operators and stakeholders deliberated on the persistent flight delays and cancellations in the industry.

The stakeholders meeting was attended by Airline Operators, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Olubunmi Kuku; representatives of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), among others.

Onyema said the airline has been under severe attacks since it started its London operation in February 2024, and the attacks were being initiated from Nigeria.

Onyema, who is the Vice-President of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), stated that the attacks came in the form of accusations of delays and cancellations of flights when the airline was clearly not at fault.

According to him, many people have been posting false videos and narratives against the airline on social media to denigrate the airline.

He also recalled false news claiming that an Air Peace flight crashed in Western Sahara with people dead, adding that those behind the series of false narratives against the airline must be cautioned.

He said, “These people are relentless in their attacks, and they are doing it in such a way that it’s becoming dangerous. I call on security agencies to investigate these. I’m saying this with every patriotic instinct in me. This is scary. These people are doing everything to malign the airline.

“The target of these people is to diminish the success achieved by this administration especially the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development.

“The aviation industry under President Bola Tinubu has improved, the ease of doing business has improved and it’s excellent but some people want to rubbish the successes of this administration by these fake videos and narratives.”

Whilst I’m not privy to whether there is a plot or not to defame his company, I know from my experiences that Air Peace Airline of Nigeria has horrible public image and has only but disrespect for their passengers especially those of us going to the South-East of Nigeria who are extorted heavily much more than the passengers going to Kano.

In conclusion, I’m asking that Air Peace airline should stop empty propaganda and enforce strict supervisory processes on their grossly incompetent staff.

The below researched citations are how Air Peace airline can be customer centric as written by some tour researchers.

The 4 Steps to Becoming a Customer-Centric Airline. They argued that Airlines must redirect their sights from cost containment to customer centricity to arrive at long-term success.

The 4 Steps to Becoming a Customer-Centric Airline Services as written below. Read carefully.

Top-tier companies in all industries are finding that technology and pervasive information in the hands of customers is changing the game, making it increasingly difficult to rely on brand image, market presence, or scale. What will distinguish the leaders of the future will be outstanding customer service.

Perhaps more than any industry, airlines operate in an environment of constant change—fluctuating markets, frequent mergers and alliances, and volatile economic drivers. Worse, the target continues to move as customers’ needs and expectations change and evolve.

Keeping pace with these changes means thinking differently. Instead of the traditional operations focus, it’s time for airlines to take a customer-centric approach. Doing so means using service as a key differentiator; interacting with customers based on their needs and their value to the organization; adopting a fact-based approach to decisions using customer data as a primary source of insight; embracing new channels; and building a customer-focused culture.

Building a customer-centric airline means offering passengers memorable and lasting experiences, harnessing customer insight, embracing new channels, and building a customer-focus culture. To do this, you must follow the principles of IDIC:

Identify customers as unique, addressable individuals

Differentiate by value, behavior, and needs

Interact more cost-effectively and efficiently

Customize some aspects of the company’s behavior, offerings, or communication.

Please Air peace airline, be efficient for once!

…Emmanuel Onwubiko, former National Commissioner, National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria, is head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA)