A Max Air flight from Abuja to Kano on Sunday was delayed by over an hour after a passenger reportedly confronted airline staff over a business-class seating dispute, causing tension onboard.

Eyewitnesses said the businessman, identified only as Mikai’l, was traveling with his wife and two infants. He had purchased two adult and two infant Business Class tickets but discovered that the aircraft operating the flight lacked a Business Class cabin.

According to reports, Mikai’l was informed by airline staff that all available aircraft were economy or premium economy, and his original seats had allegedly been reassigned to “influential figures.”

“Do you know who the seat was allocated to?” a staff member reportedly asked Mikai’l, according to passengers.

The ticket issued to Mikai’l indicated seat D1 C1, the first row on the right side of the aircraft. Observing the seat was empty during boarding, he decided to occupy it with his family.

Station Manager Bello Ramalan instructed cabin crew to move him to a different seat, but Mikai’l refused. Security was reportedly called to evict him, escalating tensions until intervention by lawmakers, including Senator Abdulaziz Yar’Adua, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, and Senator Lawan Shuaibu, helped resolve the situation.

Max Air’s version of events, as provided by Ramalan, emphasized that the aircraft change necessitated automatic downgrades in the reservation system:

“When we change an aircraft from business class to a classless, all economy, everybody that booked online will drop automatically. The passenger should then use the same ticket to top up and buy a new ticket for available seating.”

Ramalan acknowledged that Mikai’l and other passengers were not informed of the downgrade prior to arrival at the airport and apologized for the inconvenience, explaining that messages were sent but may have gone unseen.

“Our first priority is to make passengers happy. We took our time for more than 30 minutes to explain to him. We apologized because we inconvenienced him. Quite all right, we are at fault,” Ramalan said.

The flight, initially scheduled for 7:30 a.m., eventually departed at 9:05 a.m., with the seating dispute reportedly resolved before takeoff.