The management of Air Peace airline has described as false, malicious and a deliberate attempt by a mischievous maker to rundown the airline through a fake video being circulated alleging overbooking and untimely closure of counter during one of its operations at the London Gatwick airport.
The video which has since gone viral was said to have been recorded and posted by a non passenger of the airline who only escorted a passenger who came late to board the Air Peace after the boarding time had elapsed.
The unrecognized person behind the video had claimed that Air Peace abandoned their passengers at the Gatwick airport fare closing their counter before the stipulated time because the aircraft was overbooked.
In a swift reaction to counter the video, the airline declared: “Our attention has been drawn to a video circulating on social media that Air Peace not only abandoned their passengers at Gatwick Airport, but closed their counter before closing time because the aircraft was overbooked on our London-Lagos flight on Monday, April 8, 2024.
This video recording was a deliberate and malicious attempt to tarnish the image of Air Peace. In the video, a number of falsehoods were claimed, specifically:
Firstly, we closed our counter before time. Secondly, we overbooked our flight and our aircraft was full, hence we quickly closed the door and departed for Lagos.
Thirdly, take off time was supposed to be 12:00noon.
“We want to state categorically that the passenger, who the narrator escorted to the airport, came very late after check-in phase was already concluded and the counter had closed.
“Gatwick Airport operate by slot timings allocated to each of the airlines operating out of this airport. The check-in operations of airlines are slot-based, and airlines take turns based on their approved times. Once your slot timing is up, you must vacate the counters for the next airline’s utilization. The check-in process ends at 09:00am, as advised in the Terms and Conditions section of our e-ticket and website, and the counter was vacated by Air Peace in accordance with our slot allocation at 09:55am.
“To ensure passengers do not miss their flights, we send them multiple messages at different times before their flight – 24hrs, 14hrs and 6hrs before flight departure.
Departure for this flight was scheduled for 11:10am, so all processes needed to adhere to this time.
Also clearing the Air on the allegation of overbooking of the flight in question, the airline management declared: “It was also claimed that we overbooked our flight. The UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority can attest to the number of passengers on our manifest for the said flight. The aircraft left Gatwick with some seats unoccupied, so no overbooking took place.
“Gatwick Airport has CCTV coverage showing the time the passenger arrived at the airport/Air Peace counter and the time the maker of this video got to the airport. The late arriving passenger duly paid the no show fee, was booked to travel on a subsequent flight, and therefore the issue was resolved at the airport. It is disappointing that a different version of what transpired has been circulating.
“Air Peace will continue to do its best to meet the needs of our passengers, but we also require passengers to work with us to ensure they can travel to their destinations by adhering to specified times. As always “Your Peace is Our Goal”.