Anger, Frustration As Passengers Attempt Securing Flight To Beat Strike

Following the likelihood of a nationwide strike by airline operators on Monday, 9th May,2022, as earlier announced, many passengers are having a hard time securing flights to their destinations.
Our correspondent who visited the Ibadan Airport based in Alakia around 7pm on Sunday, reports that anger and frustration were evident on the faces of passengers as many of them were seen arguing with Airline personnel.
A passenger who spoke under the condition of anonymity said her flight was scheduled for Monday but they were asked to come to the airport right away and upon getting there there was no plane to airlift them.
“We already booked our flight on line and it was supposed to be for tomorrow morning so we didn’t plan for today at all.On getting here everything is so confusing, we don’t even know our fate whether or not we can leave today because we are being pushed from one personnel to the other for the way out”.the passenger said.

In the case of some passengers, they had boarded the plane ready for take off when they were all instructed to get down following a directive from their headquarters to ask all passengers to alight from the plane.

A student who was returning from his vacation said his flight from Abuja to Ibadan was initially scheduled for 3pm but the flight was delayed for three hours.
“My flight was supposed to be for 3pm,it was later moved to 4:55pm but we eventually left@ 5:30pm. I noticed that at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja,the counters were abandoned at some stage by the airline personnel. I’m glad I arrived safely despite the stress”.

Airline Operators of Nigeria had on Friday, 6th May, 2022, announced that they would embark on an indefinite strike starting on Monday, 9th May 2022.

They cited the increasing cost of aviation fuel as the major reason for planning to shut down operations.

The Airline Operators claimed the price of aviation fuel (JetA1) had suddenly risen from N190 per litre to about N700, a development which had created huge pressure on the sustainability of operations and financial viability of the airlines.

Olutola Daramola