Femi Ashekun/
Air Peace flight operations were disrupted during the peak holiday travel period after a ground handling conveyor belt operated by the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, NACHO, struck one of the airline’s aircraft at the Lagos airport while passengers were already onboard.
The incident forced the deboarding of passengers and the withdrawal of the aircraft from service, triggering knock-on delays and cancellations across multiple routes at a time of heightened Christmas and New Year travel demand.
The development was disclosed by the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Michael Achimugu, in a post on X.
Although Achimugu did not name the ground handling company in his post, photographs he shared showed NACHO-branded equipment at the scene.
“Passengers were already boarded when a ground handler’s conveyor belt hit the aircraft, causing damage to the engine cover,” Achimugu said.
He explained that the aircraft had been scheduled to operate nine flight sectors, meaning the disruption extended beyond a single flight.
“The aircraft was scheduled to fly nine sectors. All passengers waiting for its operations are automatically disrupted,” he said, adding that the airline would face “backlash, refund issues and compensation” for damage “that was not its fault”.
Achimugu said the incident would impose significant financial costs on the airline, noting that repairs typically require large foreign exchange outlays. “The airline would spend large sums of foreign currency to fix” the damage, he said.
The affected aircraft was one of Air Peace’s recently acquired Embraer E195-E2 jets, which Achimugu said had been fully booked until January 15, 2026.
“Now, all innocent passengers booked for its operations will experience one delay or cancellation,” he said.
Achimugu criticised the practice whereby airlines attribute disruptions to “technical or operational reasons”, shielding third-party service providers from scrutiny while absorbing passenger anger and regulatory consequences under Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023.
He said Air Peace had suffered repeated operational disruptions through no fault of its own and called for tougher action against poorly trained ground handling personnel.
“We need to start naming and shaming poorly trained ground handling personnel whose inefficiency costs the airlines great reputational, financial and technical damage,” he said.
According to him, the NCAA is considering stronger regulations to sanction service providers involved in such incidents.
“We will now be looking to strengthen the regulations in a way that also heavily sanctions service providers for matters like this,” Achimugu said.
He appealed to affected passengers for understanding, noting that Air Peace’s standby aircraft had already been deployed to manage similar disruptions during the holiday rush.
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