One of the factors heating up the country’s aviation sector is the issue of flight delays/cancellations for hardly will a week pass without the issue of delays rearing its head with one domestic airline putting passengers on the edge over the menace.
Agreed that the issue of flight delays or cancellations is not peculiar to Nigeria as it happens in other climes, after all, as far as flight operations continue, there will always be delays or cancellations.
As aircraft continue to take off or land, obviously there are bound to be logistic problems which may involve aircraft malfunctioning, VIP movement, fuel scarcity and even bad weather which no one has control over apart from many other reasons that may hamper prompt takeoff or landing.
Obviously, many Nigerian travellers experience some of these factors while it occurs aboard foreign airlines outside the country. The difference is that when it happens outside the country, the airlines involved do not delay in carrying the passengers along.
Therefore, nothing should stop the Nigerian airlines in promptly letting their passengers know once any flight is going to be delayed.
It is pertinent for airlines to always be truthful whenever they are confronted with factors that may lead to flight delays as it will go a long way in dousing any tension such a situation may bring.
In all honesty, it’s very unfair for any airline to keep its passengers in suspense for over one hour not to talk of four hours behind flight schedule without any information. It’s not everyone under this circumstance that can control what may follow.
Therefore, the constant confrontation between airlines and aggrieved passengers over flight delays/cancellations would be greatly minimized if the airlines could be more truthful and play the game by the rule.
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The airlines should realise that many passengers embark on air travels not just for pleasure but in most cases for business and official engagement, hence, failure to meet up that appointment could lead to loss of huge business or even official engagement and job loss.
Probably this sad situation would have been avoided if the airlines could realise that as they are in business, that many passengers patronising them are also in business and until the airlines learn to treat the passengers well, they will always have problems whenever delays or cancellation occur.
This brought to the fore again the recent confrontation between Max Air and its passengers at Abuja airport over the same menace. The situation became aggravated with angry passengers not only destroying the airline’s properties but even the airport’s properties.
The airlines reacting unanimously condemned the action of the passengers and also promised to take action should a similar behaviour repeats itself. Many key players had attacked the airlines for threatening the passengers without referring to their misdemeanor that often provoke the passengers.
Obviously, because two wrongs do not make a right, the airlines on one part should first put its house in order by instructing its members to ensure the incessant delays are reduced to the barest minimum just as they should treat the passengers fairly when challenges occur.
While the airlines need to sit up, the passengers equally need to restrain themselves when confronted with delays or cancellations and they should stop taking the laws into their hands no matter the level of provocation.
Destroying airline and airport properties as reactions to flight delays is much uncivilised and can be tantamount to unruly behaviour which has greater consequences in saner climes.
For sure these many Nigerians even when they are subjected to more bad treatment aboard foreign carriers, dare not descend so low to start attacking public properties because they know the weighty consequences.
The time has therefore come for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to tackle this group of passengers by enlightening them that they are the government organs responsible for confronting such erring airlines.
While the NCAA and the FCCPC put heads together to tackle the airlines, they should be ready to prosecute any unruly passenger that wants to create scene at the airports because of flight delays. In other climes, unruly passengers are either put on ‘a no flight list’ or fine heavily.
and then