Stranded Arik Air Passengers Shut Down Abuja Airport Operations

Hope you guy didn't experience this too? to be stranded as this can cause so much trouble depending on individual's schedule.

 Stranded passengers, who were scheduled to travel to Ibadan by Arik Air but were left for hours by the airline yesterday which led to the shut down of operations at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

The aggrieved passengers blocked the boarding gate of the airport and did not allow  Arik and other airlines to board passengers to other destinations. One of the stranded passengers, Saka Waheed, a civil society activist, told PREMIUM TIMES at about 9:30 P.M that the aborted flight was originally schedule for 3.25pm.



“Later, they came to tell us it had been changed to 4p.m. By 4 o’clock, they said flight
would be 7pm. When it was 7, we were directed to enter a bus to take us to the tarmac so that we could board the plane and leave for Ibadan.

Although we entered the bus, yet the driver later told us to get down. In short, that was the point we were told the flight had been cancelled, after we had spent over four hours at the airport,” Mr. Waheed said.

He said they could not also access their luggage, which had already been checked in. He complained that neither airport officials nor Arik Air staff offered them any explanation on why the flight was cancelled and how to get their luggage. “Because of that treatment, we are not allowing anybody to travel out of Abuja until either airport officials or Arik officials come to address us,” Mr. Waheed said.

Also complaining, is another passenger, Tope Oladele, said:
 “Well, as you can see; these people are very uncivilised. They are treating us like animals. Nobody has come to explain what happened. They have left us stranded.”

Both passaengers Mr Waheed and Oladele said there was no official at the Arik stand to attend to passengers’ complaints as at the time this story was filed yesterday. Officials of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) as well as Arik Air’s spokesperson could not be reached either.

Passengers said Arik is famously known for their arbitrary flight postponement and cancellation and that they are disappointed that aviation authorities have so far failed to call the airline to order.

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