Flight delays: Operators worried over attacks on staff
The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has said it is worried over the spate of attacks on officials and facilities by irate passengers at various airports while it considers options. This stemmed from last week’s attack on Max Air counter at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja over flight delay. The airline’s staff also came […]
The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has said it is worried over the spate of attacks on officials and facilities by irate passengers at various airports while it considers options.
This stemmed from last week’s attack on Max Air counter at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja over flight delay.
The airline’s staff also came under attack at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos after a Lagos-Kano flight was reportedly cancelled after several hours of delay.
While condemning the attack, the AON, representing indigenous airlines, said the attack “further heightens our deepest concern and worry over the increasingly deplorable state of security and the rising threat to the lives of airline staff and their properties at Nigerian airports.”
President of AON, Alhaji Abdulmunaf Yunusa Sarina, in a statement, explained that issues of delay or cancellation can be addressed in a civil manner without resorting to violence.
An Executive Director of Max Air, Barr. Shehu, blamed the delays and cancellations on technical issues not envisaged, adding that passengers were notified. He said yesterday that the backlog of passengers had been cleared.
Defending cases of flight delays, AON said while it understands the frustrations usually caused by flight delays, in Nigeria, 80% of the causes of delays and cancellations are due to factors that are not under the control of airlines.
“Airlines operating in Nigeria are forced to operate in an environment that is wrought with infrastructure deficiencies that are highly disruptive to normal schedule reliability and on-time performance,” he said.
The airline operators urged the federal government to protect airlines against such attacks by raising security at the airports and ensuring that the lives of airline staff and their properties are lawfully protected.
“May we also state that should a similar occurrence like the unfortunate case with Max Air happen to any of our member airlines going forward, AON may be forced to have a rethink on how to respond in such circumstances,” AON noted in a statement.