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By Chukwuma Umeorah
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, has said flight delays and cancellations should not automatically be blamed on airlines, arguing that bad weather, airport closures and other operational challenges can disrupt services even when carriers are ready to fly.
Onyema said passengers and the public often judged airlines based on delayed departures often followed by viral social media videos without considering the circumstances surrounding the disruptions. Speaking at an event marking seven years of Real Talk with Kike, in Lagos on Saturday, he cited instances where flights were reportedly diverted because of adverse weather or airport restrictions, saying the resulting disruptions could be wrongly attributed to the airlines.
“You can blame the airlines for all you care, but have you ever come to ask them about the challenges they face?” He recalled an incident in which an aircraft heading to Abuja was reportedly affected by an airport closure following an aircraft incident involving a different airline that required runway inspection. According to him, flights were diverted while the airport was closed, but the resulting inconvenience to passengers was subsequently blamed on the airline.
Onyema also recounted an international flight that was diverted to Manchester while approaching London Gatwick during bad weather. He said other flights were also diverted from London, “but a passenger’s video that went viral on social media portrayed the incident as an operational failure by Air Peace.” He argued that such accounts could create a misleading impression when they did not explain the circumstances behind the disruption.
He vowed that Air Peace would no longer remain silent over what he described as deliberate attempts to damage its reputation, insisting that the airline would speak out against misleading claims and defend its business.
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“There are people out there who just want to chase clout or deliberately have the intention to destroy the reputation of businesses in Nigeria. But we have decided that we will not take it anymore. We’ll have to fight back and speak up to protect our reputation.”
He added that sometimes flights are also delayed due to safety-related concerns including regulatory directions. He also cited infrastructural challenges including lack of technology needed to navigate in instances of low visibility and bad weather conditions. “Abroad, you can fly blindly and land a plane, because you have corresponding equipment to help the plane land safely, whereas in Nigeria, our airports are not fully equipped. Sometimes you hear things like visibility is below 2,000 and you cannot fly. And the moment you delay one flight, it would affect every other flight schedule including other airlines.”
Onyema’s clarification follows continuing concerns over flight disruptions in Nigeria. The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) reported that domestic airlines recorded 4,765 delayed flights and 36 cancellations out of 7,961 flights in August 2026. The figures indicated that about 59.9 per cent of the recorded domestic flights were delayed. Of the delayed flights, 2,801 were delayed by between 16 minutes and one hour, while 1,322 experienced delays of between one and two hours. Another 407 were delayed by between two and three hours, and 235 by three hours or more.
However, the figures became the subject of a dispute between the regulator and some airlines. Air Peace challenged the NCAA’s August report, saying it operated 2,564 flights during the month, compared with the 1,864 recorded by the regulator. The airline’s Chief Operating Officer, Oluwatoyin Olajide, argued that the omission of more than 700 flights distorted its reported delay performance. Some airline operators also faulted the report for failing to distinguish adequately between delays within airlines’ control and those caused by external factors.
Onyema maintained that “airlines often faced criticism for circumstances beyond their control, including weather conditions and restrictions affecting airport operations.” He said such disruptions could also affect subsequent flights because aircraft scheduled for several trips in a day might be unable to maintain their timetables after an earlier service was delayed.
He however acknowledged that airlines were not without operational shortcomings. “There are times they drop the ball.” Onyema emphasized that passengers should not assume every delay was caused by airline incompetence, particularly when weather, airport restrictions or other external circumstances were involved.
