Airlines under the aegis of Airline
Operators of Nigeria (AON) have condemned the spate of attacks on airlines
workers by irate passengers particularly the recent attack by some unruly
passengers on the staff of Max Air and the wanton destruction of the airline’s
properties due to a flight delay.
President of AON, Dr Abdulmunaf
Yunusa Sarina in a statement lamented that the incident has further heightened
their 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.
The AON however warned that it may
be forced to have a rethink on how to respond in such circumstances should a
similar occurrence like the unfortunate case with Max Air happen to any of its
member airlines.
He stated that the airport vicinity
is a sensitive and sacrosanct environment where people are not allowed to
behave in a callous and uncontrollable manner, decrying a situation where
passengers are allowed to have access into sensitive restricted areas of the
airport and attack airline staff or prevent a plane from departing to other
destinations because a particular flight is delayed or cancelled puts the
country in a bad light in the international community.
The AON chief explained that issues
of delay or cancellation could be addressed in a civil manner without resorting
to violence, stressing that the unruly passengers that went after Max Air and
destroyed the computer reservation systems further exacerbated the problem for
other passengers going to other destinations. Such acts are completely
unacceptable.
His words, “AON understands the
frustrations whenever a flight is delayed or cancelled and we apologize to
passengers on behalf of airlines for such delays or cancellations. It is
however instructive to note that delays happen worldwide and there are
conditions that cause them”.
“In Nigeria, 80% of the causes of
delays and cancellations are due to factors that are not in 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 listed some of the more prevalent
causes of delays and cancellations to include unavailability and the rising
cost of Jet A1 (which today costs above N585 per litre in Lagos, N607 in Abuja
and Port Harcourt, and N685 in Kano), inadequate parking space for aircraft on
the apron sometimes leading to ground accidents, inadequate screening and exit
points at departure, inefficient passenger access and facilitation, natural and
unforeseen circumstances such as weather and catastrophic failures (e.g. bird
strikes & component failures), and restrictions caused by sunset airports
among others.
AON boss appealed to passengers to
express some restraint in expressing their displeasure or frustrations during
flight delays or cancellations.
By - Admin
By - Admin
By - Admin