Air Peace Airlines has offered clarifications on the recent delays and cancellation of its flights on certain routes insisting that it is more driven by safety than other considerations as the development was attributable to shortage of aircraft in its fleet.
The carrier said it will never compromise the safety of its passengers, when human lives are involved.
The airline was responding to calls by the apex civil aviation regulatory body, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which advised the carrier to improve its domestic operations and align with the size of its fleet.
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Although, the airline apologised to passengers for flight disruptions but noted that , “At Air Peace, safety is and will always remain our cardinal priority. These delays and cancellations are dictated by safety considerations. We fully empathize 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.
“It is also important to clarify a key statement allegedly credited to the NCAA, that Air Peace should reduce the size of its operations to align with available aircraft. While we understand the spirit of that recommendation, we must clearly state that Air Peace has more aircraft available than are currently rostered for daily operations. Therefore, any delays or cancellations we’ve experienced have absolutely nothing to do with fleet shortage.”, the airline said.
While giving an instance of one of its aircraft which experienced a bird strike and had its engine damaged while landing in Enugu on Friday, it stated that the aircraft was immediately grounded and withdrawn from operation in accordance with safety protocol.
“This aircraft had been scheduled to service multiple routes today, and its unavailability has had a direct ripple effect on operations for those routes. This kind of situation is completely beyond the control of any airline, but again, our priority is the safety of our passengers.