The aviation industry is meant to strengthen a nation’s economy and provide reliable transportation for business, family, and emergency travel. Unfortunately, that has not been the case with many Nigerian airlines.
Numerous air passengers – local and foreign, regularly have unpalatable experience to share whenever they are flying locally. The customer relations of many Nigerian airlines is poor and uncommendable, yet the passengers seem helpless whenever their rights are trampled upon by the operators.
Flight delays or cancellations are the most important determinant for consumer dissatisfaction and complaints against airlines. These two are detrimental to the image of any airline’s reputation and resulting in passengers switching carriers. But in most cases, when delays or cancellations occur in developed aviation countries, the operators take total responsibility and communicate with the affected passengers.
However, my recent experience with one of Nigeria’s domestic airlines – United Nigeria Airlines is nothing to write home about. During my visit to the country in the month of May, I booked a flight from Lagos to Asaba. The flight was scheduled to depart at 7:15a.m to Asaba Airport on May 13. Shockingly, the flight never departed until approximately 10:15p.m, a whopping 15 hours later. My final destination was to Ogidi in Anambra State for the wake of my mother in-law.
