Trip Report: AirPeace - Calabar to Lagos, Nigeria (December 2017)

Trip Report: AirPeace - Calabar to Lagos, and return

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The aviation sector in Nigeria has fluctuated a lot in the past couple of years.  There has been introduction on new international and domestic carriers, with most of them not succeeding and either downgrading or completely shutting down.  Currently there are a couple of carriers in the Nigerian aviation market, but no one carrier dominates.  If you ask locals, they have varying opinions on which airline provides better service, which has a better on-time schedule, and which has better costs.  Arik Air used to be the dominant carrier, but they have struggled recently and have slowed their growth.  Med-View Airlines and Air Peace are two additional carriers who have recently come into the market and are making waves.  I was flying from Lagos to Calabar and return and I could choose between Arik Air or Air Peace – I wanted to fly with Arik to check out their product, but I was warned that their flights tend not to depart on time.  I had an international flight the next day in Lagos so I wanted to ensure I got to Lagos.  For this reason, I choose Air Peace.

I went to the airline’s website to book my ticket.  The website was very easy to use, whether on the computer or on the phone, except for the payment option.  I went through and selected the flights that I wanted and entered my information.  When I got to the payment option, I could either hold the booking and pay in office or pay via credit card.  I originally tried to pay via credit card, but the amount changed each time I changed screens.  This seemed out of sorts and so I cancelled that transaction and choose the ‘hold and pay’ option.  I went to the airport and paid for my ticket and received the paper copy, but overall it was a very inconvenient process.  After everything was confirmed, I went back to the website to manage my booking including updating my contact information and selecting seat assignments.

My departure flight was scheduled to leave Calabar at 4:50pm and arrive into Lagos at 5:50p.  Air Peace operates two flights a day from Lagos to Calabar and return; other airlines usually offer one flight per day so this is an advantage Air Peace has.  The flight was operated by a Boeing 737-600 with a 2-2 seat layout in business and a 3-3 seat layout in economy.  From the outside, the plane had been updated with a new paint job but the inside looked very old and worn.  You board the plane via stairs and, even though you have a confirmed seat on your boarding pass, the airline institutes an ‘open seating’ policy where you sit wherever you like.  It’s very chaotic and a bit confusing to have preassigned seats on your boarding pass but then not enforce that once you get on board.  Usually older planes have more legroom, one of the few advantages of an older plane, but this older plane had almost no legroom.  The seats were very narrow in terms of both width and length, and it was overall an uncomfortable seat.  The seats had a tray table and a seatback pocket, which contained the safety card only. 

In addition to their ‘open seating’, Air Peace also has a flexible on-time departure.  The

flight form Lagos to Calabar was scheduled to leave Lagos at 2:50p and arrive into Calabar at 3:50p.  Boarding started at 2:50p and the boarding doors did not close until 3:30p.  Once all passengers were on board, manual safety demonstrations were conducted and we were ready for takeoff.  The flight time is scheduled for 1h, but actual flying time is only 35m.  Given the short flying time, as soon as we passed 10,000 feet the attendants came by to start their inflight service.  The inflight service consisted of a snack box which contained a muffin, juice, and crackers.  The attendants were also providing cups of water along with the snack box.  Given the short flight time, as soon as the snack boxes were handed out the attendants came by to collect the garbage and prepare for descent.  We landed and proceeded to our parking area where we deplaned via stairs.

Overall, it was an interesting flight with Air Peace.  Their website is easy to use to book flights and manage flights, but the payment of flights is an issue.  Their on-board product definitely needs to be upgraded, and their on-time departure definitely needs to be improved.  Having said all this, they seem to be the airline of choice these days in Nigeria so hopefully they will continue to grow and improve to ensure they are providing a good product for their customers.