Passengers on Nigerian domestic carrier, Dana Air, were stranded for at least 14 hours at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Friday, as three scheduled flights by the airline were delayed.
“No apology was tendered. We were left to our fate. They showed no concern after some of us paid about N100,000 for the flight,” one of the passengers, Atsenokhai Aloy, told The ICIR.
Among the abandoned passengers were pregnant women, nursing mothers and their babies, he said.
Aloy had thought of arriving early in Lagos Friday evening to sleep in his home, but he was abandoned with scores of other passengers by Dana Air at Abuja Airport lobby till 8a.m Saturday, when the flight conveying him and others finally arrived.
He said by 1a.m on Saturday, an aircraft landed and picked passengers that were supposed to fly at 11a.m the previous day.
He said he had arrived at the airport and checked in before 6p.m on Friday. But getting to the departure hall, he met scores of other passengers who were supposed to have left for Lagos but stranded.
“I slept in the airport waiting for a flight!! Dana air kept passengers including nursing mothers, pregnant women, and children in the airport from 7p.m yesterday till this time I am typing this message (Saturday morning).
“We were all checked in and given our boarding pass. But there was no aircraft to convey us! From 7p.m yesterday till now, myself and several other passengers are all seated in the departure hall of Abuja Airport waiting for the aircraft that will take us to Lagos.
“I have heard of delayed flights, but never in my life did I ever imagine that I will sleep in the airport waiting endlessly for a flight that no one knows when it will arrive.
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“At some point, three different sets of passengers bound for Lagos were all waiting. There was no aircraft and Dana wasn’t ready to give us any sensible explanation. I am sure they know that there won’t be consequences for this unbelievable service failure. After all, this is Nigeria.
“By 1a.m, one aircraft landed. It picked passengers that were supposed to fly at 11a.m yesterday. Passengers scheduled for 11a.m flight on Friday morning eventually left by 1a.m on Saturday morning. I was scheduled for 7p.m and I am still here. I have been in the airport for over 10hrs!!!
“No apologies from anyone, no food offered, no empathy from the airline, just nothing! This is the height of incompetence, insensitivity, and extreme wickedness. The ministry of aviation must do something about Dana airline to protect Nigerians. We can’t be treated so shabbily in our own country without consequences.
“An airline that doesn’t have planes to fly passengers must not be selling tickets. People have different reasons for travelling and you can’t just hold them hostage. I can’t begin to imagine what others have missed,” he lamented in a message he sent to ICIR.
Efforts to get reaction of the airline were futile, as the company’s spokesperson Okwudili Ezenwe, refused to pick calls put across to him. He also failed to respond to text message sent to him on the allegation.
ICIR
