Dozens of outraged passengers, including expatriates, children, and families, were left stranded overnight at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja after Air Peace abruptly cancelled multiple flights.

Passengers were forced to sleep on cold, hard aluminium chairs in the departure hall, PUNCH Online has confirmed.

Videos and photographs obtained by our correspondent show frustrated travellers protesting the airline’s negligence. Some stood in anger, demanding answers, while others sat helplessly.

Passengers’ anger was amplified by a wave of cancellations that have plagued Air Peace recently, a situation that has sparked a clash between the airline and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority.

While the NCAA has warned the airline to put an end to its serial delays and cancellations, Air Peace claims the actions are safety-driven and in the interest of the passengers.

Passengers who spoke with our correspondent lamented that their plans were ruined, their patience exhausted, and their voices unheard; they, however, called on the government to intervene and address the growing disruptions in the aviation industry.

The former Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association in Ogun State, Dr. Kunle Ashimi was among those stranded at the airport.

The medical doctor who was scheduled for a 6:00 pm flight on Friday was first shifted to 8:00 pm but remained at the airport till past 3:15 am.

Speaking with our correspondent, Ashimi said, “If it had been a passenger arriving late, they would be penalised or denied boarding entirely. But who holds the airline accountable for this kind of abuse?”

He further said he had booked a hotel in Ikorodu, Lagos, and lamented the financial loss and emotional toll the delay caused him and others.

Recounting different passengers’ painful experiences, Ashimi told our correspondent about an expatriate who missed a once-a-week international connecting flight due to the delay.

Also, a nursing mother, who gave her name simply as Adetoun, said her child has a doctor’s appointment in Lagos very early Saturday morning but has to sleep in the airport hall.

She said, “My child, who is supposed to meet his doctor in the morning, would have to sleep in the airport hall, contending with mosquitoes, which is very painful for me.”

Amidst the outcry, Air Peace aircraft arrived around 3:15 am, eventually landing in Lagos at 4:10 am.

All efforts to get the spokesperson of the airline, Dr. Ejike Ndiulo, were unsuccessful. Text messages and calls were not replied to.

Meanwhile, barely 10 hours earlier, the airline had said its decisions to cancel or delay flights are mostly for safety concerns.

Air Peace added that its business priority isn’t profit but safety, even though it has more aircraft than the authority schedules daily.

Air Peace said this in a statement in reply to the warnings by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority for the airline to operate in accordance with its available aircraft, insinuating that the airline was operating more routes than its available aircraft.

Air Peace stated, “At Air Peace, safety is and will always remain our cardinal priority. These delays and cancellations are dictated by safety considerations. We fully empathise with our esteemed passengers who experience discomfort, inconvenience, or disrupted plans due to flight delays or cancellations.

“However, we do not regret taking operational decisions rooted in the protection of human lives and in strict adherence to safety standards. If weather conditions, technical parameters, or operational standards fall short of what is safe, we will not operate that flight,” the airline’s management added. (Saturday PUNCH)