The National Association of Seadogs (NAS) also known as Pirates Confraternity, has called on the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority and Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, to enforce the sanctions on airlines which indulge in flight cancelation and delay.
In a statement issued Sunday by the Capoon of the Ikeja branch of NAS, Mr Iheanyi Konkwo, the organisation decried the increasing rate of flight cancellation and delay, describing the scenario in Kano, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Owerri, Benin, Asaba, Ilorin and Enugu airports, among others as worrisome.
The statement read in part: “Flight delays have become regular narratives at the local airports across the country without explanations to passengers who might have incurred financial lose or undergone emotional stress.
“The nation’s leading local operator (name withheld) has become the major culprit as they flagrantly delay or cancel flight schedules. The truth should be told, if airlines are made to compensate passengers for flight delays or cancellation, they will sit up.
“Within a spate of one week, passengers in the Kano, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Owerri, Benin, Asaba, Akure, Ilorin and Enugu airports have either experienced outright flight cancellation or delayed flight schedules for an upward of four hours. This is quite disheartening.”
“At the moment, most air passengers hold the view that they are being taken for granted. Who’s at fault? The regulatory agencies need to wake up. Today’s problem will continue to expand if not addressed.”
The association also called on the regulatory bodies to monitor the functionality of equipment at the airports, especially during night flights, and tasked the regulatory bodies to ensure that basic infrastructure facilities in the airports were functioning.
“The Nigerian aviation industry has been taken 40 years behind compared with their counterparts in other climes. Passengers blame airlines for operational anomalies, but the regulatory authorities also have their blames.”
