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For about 8 hours last Tuesday, August 11, the atmosphere at the domestic wing of the nation’s two busiest airports – Murtala Muhammed International airport, Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport, Abuja – was chaotic. The situation was a big mess. Confusion everywhere. Such was the violence and disruption that a helpless passenger likened the behaviour of the bullies to that of ‘lunatics taking over the asylum’. It was not for nothing. It was a coordinated picketing exercise that singled out Air Peace, Nigeria’s and West Africa’s largest carrier.
Thousands of passengers were stranded. Some scampered for safety. Others watched in disbelief as several employees of Air Peace were intimidated, some manhandled. A female employee of the airline was beaten black-and-blue by the irascible union workers. Over 80 flights were reported cancelled at both terminals in Lagos and Abuja. It rippled into the schedule of other domestic carriers whose aircraft, crew and slots share the same congested airport infrastructure. The disruptions also affected both local and regional networks. At the end of the day, the management of Air Peace put its losses at over N2 billion in revenue.
The amount excludes passenger refunds and compensation claims that are still being assessed by the airline’s management team. The coordinated picketing that deliberately targeted the operations of Air Peace in Lagos and Abuja, began in the early hours of that fateful Tuesday. It was organised and willfully executed by the National Union of Air Transport Employees( NUATE), the Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association of Nigeria( ATSSSAN), and the National Association of Aircraft pilots and Engineers(NAAPE).
The rash action of the unions were backed by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress(TUC). Some of the questions begging for answers include : how did the picketers gain access to, and disrupted operations within a high-controlled environment like the airport? What did the relevant agencies like NCAA, FAAN and the Aviation Security(AVSEC) do to prevent them? Or were they complicit in the act? For instance, NCAA has regulatory oversight responsibility for airlines, airports, aviation security and the economic regulation of the industry. Has NCAA abdicated these statutory duties?
Airports all over the world are sensitive national assets, and as such, violent protests shouldn’t have been allowed to happen with impunity. Already, the picketing incident has raised concerns among international partners and aircraft lessors about confidence in Nigeria’s aviation environment. The union bullies claimed that their violent protest was driven by outstanding non-remittance of the 5% Ticket Sales Charge(TSC) to the regulatory agency – NCAA, a situation they alleged has denied them the necessary funds to carry out their union activities.
There was also allegation by the unions that Air Peace blocked its employees from unionism. The management of Air Peace has dutifully addressed the two main issues raised by the aggrieved union workers, insisting that the unions’ action disregarded extant laws, as well as a subsisting Federal High Court judgment in favour of staff of Air Peace in respect of unionisation. Addressing journalists last Wednesday, in Lagos, a day after the picketing, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air Peace, Mrs Oluwatoyin Olajide, rejected the unions’ framing of their action as “labour-dispute”, over grievances that apply across the entire aviation industry.
She accused the aviation unions of deliberately singling out Air Peace for violent and disruptive picketing despite the fact that the grievances being cited by the labour organisations -particularly the 5% TSC and unionisation – are not peculiar to the airline. Lamenting the sad situation, she said, “We are all witnesses to the violence, intimidation and disruptions meted out to Air Peace, our employees and other passengers on Tuesday”. On the 5% ticket sales charge, and the absence of unionisation among Air Peace employees, Mrs Olajide argued that they were neither unique to the company nor a legitimate basis for shutting down airport operations.
Regarding the 5%, it’s on record that the Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Chris Najomo said recently that the agency and all the airlines under the aegis of Airlines Operators of Nigeria( AON) had reached an agreement for the settlement of the outstanding payments owed by all the airlines. If such an agreement exists, and the airlines are complying with it, the question that arises is: why has the matter suddenly become a ground for industrial action against Air Peace? Or is it part of the orchestrated demarketing efforts to pull down the carrier?
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Available records indicate that Air Peace paid several billions TSC last year and has done same this year, and still not defaulting in paying. The airline has also paid several millions of naira in other charges. Sources close to the airline say as a leading carrier in the country, Air Peace has been prompt in paying all statutory charges because of its size and operation. Some aviation analysts have asked this question: when did industrial unions become debt-collection agents for NCAA? When has it compulsory that Air Peace employees must join the workers union?
These are some of the issues the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo and the Air Peace’s COO addressed last week. Keyamo has directed NCAA to ensure that the unions have direct access to workers of all airlines “solely to distribute forms for workers to indicate whether they intend to unionize or not”. On the contentious 5% TSC, the minister directed the NCAA and other heads of aviation agencies to, within a week, obtain a schedule of payments from airlines, spread over a reasonable timeframe, taking into account the various airlines’ cost of operation and current economic realities.
One wants to believe that the minister is fair to all, not siding anyone in the dispute. That’s why Air Peace’s COO call for an investigation into the whole matter should be treated with expeditiously. In her opinion, “our position is therefore unequivocal, our employees have the constitutional right to choose whether or not to unionise, and our passengers also have the constitutional right to travel, and Air Peace has the right to operate without unlawful interference”. Her comments are timely, as some of the protesters were heard asking passengers to boycott Peace.
It also came against the incendiary comments that went viral, by Mr. Francis Akinjole, General Secretary of ATSSSAN, calling Air Peace the “champion of bad airlines in Nigeria”. He threatened that last week’s picketing could widen into a larger confrontation over alleged restrictions on workers’ unionisation. The language of Akinjole is not only uncouth, combustive, it also raises the question whether the objective of the picketing was genuine to protect workers’ interest, or aimed deliberately to damage the corporate image of Air Peace.
It may be recalled that a Federal High Court ruling obtained by Air Peace employees in April 2024 in Suit No. FHC-LCS-1344-2023, restrained the NLC, TUC, ATSSSAN, and other unions from coercing staff into union membership or harassing them at work. If you think what happened last Tuesday at the domestic wing of Murtala Muhammed International airport and Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport Abuja was just a mere labour dispute, you have missed the point. It was one in a series of anti-marketing efforts to pull down Air Peace. If one plot fails, try another. That’s the script. That’s why the latest picketing of Air Peace’s operations deserves close scrutiny and proper investigation.
Many of the recent coordinated attacks on the airline have deliberately ignored the reality of what Air Peace has done for Nigeria’s aviation industry in the last 12 years of its existence. There’s no doubt that Air Peace remains the preferred carrier of most passengers. Statistics on passenger traffic validates that. It’s not because Air Peace is perfect. It’s because Air Peace has consistently demonstrated resilience, expansion and commitment to compete in an industry where survival itself is a daily battle.
Competitors may not be happy that Air Peace is defying the odds and winning fairly in a very tough, capital-intensive, aviation environment. Part of this demarketing efforts happened on July 13, 2025. One of Air Peace’s aircraft, with Reg. No. 5NBQQ was involved in runway excursion at the Port Harcourt International airport. All passengers disembarked unhurt. An investigation into what went wrong was carried out by the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau(NSIB). After NCAA had cleared the pilot and crew members of any wrongdoing in the incident, NSIB turned in a tardy, trashy report indicting the pilot and crew member. It was part of a smoking gun to rubbish Air Peace. The NSIB report was later upturned to the relief of the airline and the management. Those wishing for the downfall of Air Peace should better direct their energies to somewhere else.
