Air Peace has cleared the air over a video circulating on social media that it not only abandoned passengers at Gatwick Airport, but closed its counter before closing time because the aircraft was overbooked on our London-Lagos flight on Monday, April 8, 2024.
The airline which said the video recording was a deliberate and malicious attempt to tarnish its image said that the passenger, who the narrator escorted to the airport, came very late after check-in phase was already concluded and the counter had closed.
It explained further that Gatwick Airport operate by slot timings allocated to each of the airlines operating out of this airport, adding that the check-in operations of airlines are slot-based, and airlines take turns based on their approved times.
“Once your slot timing is up, you must vacate the counters for the next airline’s utilization. The check-in process ends at 09:00am, as advised in the Terms and Conditions section of our e-ticket and website, and the counter was vacated by Air Peace in accordance with our slot allocation at 09:55am.
“To ensure passengers do not miss their flights, we send them multiple messages at different times before their flight – 24hrs, 14hrs and 6hrs before flight departure.’, stated.
Air Peace revealed that departure for this particular flight was scheduled for 11:10am, therefore , all processes needed to adhere to this time.
Debunking claim that it overbooked its flight, the airline management said the UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority can attest to the number of passengers on its manifest for the said flight, saying that the aircraft left Gatwick with some seats unoccupied, so no overbooking took place.
“Gatwick Airport has CCTV coverage showing the time the passenger arrived at the airport/Air Peace counter and the time the maker of this video got to the airport. The late arriving passenger duly paid the no show fee, was booked to travel on a subsequent flight, and therefore the issue was resolved at the airport. It is disappointing that a different version of what transpired has been circulating.
“Air Peace will continue to do its best to meet the needs of our passengers, but we also require passengers to work with us to ensure they can travel to their destinations by adhering to specified times. As always “Your Peace is Our Goal”. it added.
