Local flight operations can be chaotic, and sometimes bizarre. The latter best describes a scene at Abuja Airport some days ago.
There were about three passengers at the door of Aero Contractors flight to Lagos. They had left the departure lounge only to see the aircraft door shut on them. They went irate and all hell let loose.As the video clip showed, one of the travellers kicked at the door, attempting to force it open. Another pounced on an official with squabbles and hot exchanges. None was mindful of the risk of falling off the elevated stairs! Inside the fully packed cabin was not better. It was chaotic everywhere.
Last Wednesday, Air Peace customers on the Lagos-Abuja flight had a similar experience. The flight originally booked for 10:20 a.m. was rescheduled by nine hours. One of the passengers, Enitan Akinnifesi, only saw the reschedule notice on arrival at the airport.“I got to the terminal just before 9 a.m., only to be told that my flight has been moved to 7p.m. Just like that? They don’t even realise that people travel to keep up with appointments. I didn’t take it lightly with them.
“I have been flying domestic in many parts of the world for a long time, but I’m sorry to say, I have not seen any like our operators. They just don’t care. Just when you expect them to get better, they get worse. Take Lagos for instance, once you don’t fly between 6 and 9 a.m., you have no schedule reliability. Is that how to do the business?”
The figures share parity with the pre-COVID-19 trend. In 2018 for instance, Q1 recorded a total of 14,633 flights out of which 8,825 were delayed and 208 cancelled. “On domestic flights delayed beyond one hour, the carrier should provide refreshment, and one telephone call, or one SMS, or one e-mail. They should send you an SMS or email or call you to say, ‘I am sorry, I am delaying for one hour’.
He added that airlines were given Air Operators’ Certificates based on the fact that they would comply with civil aviation regulations, maintaining that once any of the carriers is found wanting, the agency would not hesitate to sanction such an airline accordingly.
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