The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has directed Air Peace to prepare a compensation package for passengers affected by a delayed Lagos-Enugu flight after its preliminary investigation found that the airline sent them an incorrect notification.
The flight, which was scheduled to depart Lagos at 6:45am on Monday, was eventually rescheduled to 4:50pm, leaving passengers waiting for several hours at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal One.
The regulatory intervention followed a complaint by human rights lawyer and activist Inibehe Effiong, who said the disruption caused him to miss a scheduled court appearance in Enugu State.
Effiong said he arrived at the Lagos airport at about 5:50am after checking in for the flight the previous night, expecting to travel to Enugu for a case listed for definite hearing.
According to his account, passengers were kept waiting for about an hour before airline officials announced that the flight had been moved to the evening.
He also questioned why Air Peace sent a reminder to passengers at about 2:01am asking them to report for the morning flight despite the subsequent rescheduling.
The lawyer said the disruption resulted in additional expenses and prevented him from attending the scheduled court proceeding.
Following the complaint, NCAA Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection Michael Achimugu said the authority investigated the circumstances surrounding the flight disruption.
Achimugu explained that the delay was connected to the ripple effects of disruptions that had occurred the previous night, but said passengers scheduled for the Monday morning flight should have been informed that their departure had been changed.
According to the regulator, an Air Peace senior management official initially indicated that passengers had been notified about the change.
However, after Effiong provided a screenshot of the notification he received, the airline’s station and duty managers confirmed that the message had indeed been sent to passengers but was issued in error.
The NCAA said the airline’s officials acknowledged that affected passengers should have received accurate information about the rescheduled departure instead.
Air Peace also told the regulator that affected passengers had been taken to a hotel and would receive care until boarding time, although the NCAA said it was still verifying that claim.
Achimugu said the NCAA had instructed Air Peace to submit a compensation package for the affected passengers in accordance with Part 19 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2023.
He further stated that sending an incorrect notification could not be treated as a force majeure incident that would automatically shield the airline from responsibility.
The regulator said Air Peace would not necessarily face sanctions if it provided the required compensation and duty of care to the affected passengers.
However, Achimugu warned that sanctions could follow if the airline failed to meet its obligations under the applicable aviation regulations.
The incident comes amid wider scrutiny of flight disruptions involving Nigerian domestic airlines, following the NCAA’s August 2026 operational report.
The regulator reported that 15 domestic carriers operated 7,961 flights during August, with 4,765 flights delayed and 36 cancelled.
Air Peace was listed as having operated 1,864 flights during the month, of which 1,330 were recorded as delayed, representing 71.4 per cent of the flights in the NCAA’s dataset.
Air Peace has disputed those figures, saying the NCAA significantly undercounted its total operations by excluding more than 700 flights from the regulator’s calculation.
The airline said it actually operated 2,564 flights in August and argued that the regulator’s figures therefore overstated its reported delay rate.
Air Peace also said delays were influenced by factors beyond the airline’s direct control, including external operational conditions, while maintaining that internal factors accounted for only a portion of the disruptions.
The latest Lagos-Enugu case is therefore separate from the broader disagreement over the August statistics, with the NCAA’s current directive specifically arising from its investigation into the communication failure surrounding Monday’s flight.
The authority’s passenger-rights guidance states that air travellers have protections covering delays, cancellations and other disruptions, including specified remedies depending on the circumstances of a delayed or cancelled flight.
For the passengers affected by the Lagos-Enugu disruption, the next step will be the submission and implementation of Air Peace’s compensation package following the NCAA directive.