Arik
Air passengers have caused a serious stir in Abuja airport after the
airline failed to keep to its end of travel agreements.
Arik Air
Many angry passengers recently disrupted Arik Air’s flight operations at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
They disrupted the flight for some hours on Thursday because of the
inability of the airline to transport them to their various
destinations.
Punch Metro reports that passengers of the carrier, who were meant
to travel from Abuja to Warri, Delta State around 3pm on Wednesday,
could not do so and the flight had to be rescheduled.
One of those affected revealed that the passengers were asked to
return to the airport on Thursday, but on getting to the NAIA, the
airline announced that the flight had been cancelled.
This irked the travellers and made them to stage a protest, as they
prevented other passengers of the airline who were travelling to other
destinations from boarding their respective flights around 4.30pm on
Thursday.
The Warri-bound passengers raised their voices at officials of the
airline, as some of them demanded for a refund, while others asked the
carrier to instead take them to Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
It was gathered that officials of the carrier were able to prevail
on the passengers after explaining that the aircraft could not leave for
Warri because it had some technical issues and that there were no
airfield lights at the Warri airport to enable landing at night.
Our correspondent also learnt that some of the passengers were
lodged in hotels by Arik, as the carrier promised to fly them to their
destination on Friday.
When contacted, the spokesperson for Arik Air, Mr. Banji Ola,
explained that the aircraft that was meant to transport the travellers
to Warri developed technical issues that needed to be sorted out, adding
that the airport in Delta State lacked airfield lights to facilitate
the landing of aircraft at night.
He said, “The flight was rescheduled yesterday (Wednesday) and
today’s (Thursday) own was cancelled because the aircraft was AOG
(Aircraft on Ground). And also, the Warri airport runs daylight
operation, because it has no runway light.
“And aside that, you cannot take a jet to that airport. You
cannot even operate a turbo-prop into the Warri airport, because it is a
small airport. So, you are limited by the kind of aircraft you can
operate into the airport. And that is why we are constrained. But
everything has been adequately sorted out.”
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