"These have not been our proudest moments."

Ibom Air, a commercial airline owned by the Akwa Ibom State Government, has apologised to customers affected by its disrupted services on Thursday.

The Director of the airline services, Amaka Echetabu, made the apology in a statement shared on the airline's Facebook page on Thursday.

"Please accept from us at Ibom Air, our most sincere apologies for letting you down badly today."

The airline said it had been experiencing a few days of disrupted services as they tried to cope with multiple and unexpected incidents of aircraft maintenance. It did not, however, give details of the disrupted flights.

"These have not been our proudest moments," the airline said. "We once again apologise unreservedly for it."

It said it would take steps to do much better, from now on.

Ibom Air, which recently went regional with the launch of its Nigeria-Ghana flight, has over the years earned praises for its scheduled reliability - its ability to keep to the scheduled time for departures and arrivals.

Onofiok Luke, former federal lawmaker from Akwa Ibom, said the airline's apology to its customers was "quite commendable".

"Taking responsibility when things don't go well is the hallmark of responsible leadership and corporate management. Proud of Ibom Air," said Mr Luke, who is also a former speaker of the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly.

Mr Luke added that he was "prouder" of Ibom Air's "value of excellence and high sense of responsibility".

"Taking responsibility is one thing, not repeating the mistake is another," said a Facebook user, Obong-anwan Balogun. "I am still not happy with them."