Air Peace cancels Abuja-Maiduguri flight, citing Jet A1 fuel shortage and Maiduguri airport sunset restriction

Air Peace cancelled its Abuja-to-Maiduguri flight on Saturday, attributing the disruption to two separate factors: a shortage of Jet A1 aviation fuel at Abuja's Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and a last-minute withdrawal of an operational extension at Maiduguri airport. The airline said the fuel shortage caused initial delays to its Abuja operations and also affected other carriers at the airport.

Once fuel became available and flights partially resumed, the Abuja-Maiduguri service still could not depart. The Maiduguri control tower, which had earlier granted an extension allowing the aircraft to arrive after sunset, reversed that extension around the time passengers were being called for boarding, and the airport reverted to visual flight rules that no longer permitted arrivals beyond sunset. Air Peace cancelled the flight, accommodated affected passengers in a hotel, and arranged for the service to operate the following day, saying passengers were informed of the delays and given refreshments before the cancellation decision.

According to data from Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Air Peace accounted for 1,330 delayed flights out of 1,864 recorded for the airline in August, representing 71.4 per cent of its operations that month. Air Peace disputed those figures, saying it operated 2,564 flights in August, that more than 700 of its flights were not captured in the NCAA dataset, and that only 391 of its delayed flights were attributable to factors within its own operations. The cancellation follows the NCAA directing Air Peace, days earlier, to prepare a compensation package for passengers affected by a separate delayed Lagos-Enugu flight, after a preliminary finding that the airline had sent passengers incorrect information about a rescheduled departure. Under the NCAA's Part 19 regulations, domestic passengers are entitled to refreshments after a two-hour delay, with longer disruptions potentially triggering reimbursement, rerouting, accommodation and, in qualifying circumstances, financial compensation. "We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our esteemed passengers and appreciate their patience and understanding," Air Peace said in a statement.

This case illustrates how disruptions at one airport can ripple through to another entirely unrelated one: a fuel shortage in Abuja delayed departure timing enough that Maiduguri's sunset-arrival rule then became the binding constraint, even after the original problem had cleared. In markets where fuel supply at a hub airport is intermittent, on-time performance depends as much on ground infrastructure and destination-airport operating rules as on an airline's own scheduling.

The dispute over the NCAA's delay figures also points to a structural friction in how airline reliability is measured and reported: Air Peace's count of total flights operated in August differs from the regulator's by roughly 700, and the two sides attribute delay causes differently. Regulatory oversight under Part 19 gives passengers defined rights to refreshments, accommodation and potential compensation once delay thresholds are crossed, which is why the airline documented the hotel accommodation and refreshments it provided before cancelling.

What happens next includes whether the NCAA and Air Peace reconcile their competing flight-count and delay figures, and how the compensation package ordered over the separate Lagos-Enugu incident is finalized, since both bear on how the airline's on-time record is judged going forward.