Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
- Airline alleges sabotage by Gatwick authorities, handlers
AGAIN passengers have expressed their dismay and discontent at Med-view Airline by causing a drama at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) after the airline cancelled its Lagos-Dubai and Lagos-London flights Thursday and Friday respectively.
This is as the airline has reacted stating that its operation is being sabotaged by the combined efforts of the ground handlers as well as the Gatwick airport authority.
Early this morning, intending travellers to the United Kingdom became extremely agitated after the airline cancelled its Flight VLO209 from Lagos to Gatwick, London which was estimated to depart at 11:30hrs.
The passengers were joined by 47 remaining passengers lodged at a hotel due to the airline’s previous day cancellation of its Lagos Dubai flight.
According to our source, the Gatwick-bound passengers stormed the Consumer a Protection Department at the MMIA to complain of inadequate notification of the cancelled flights.
Nigerianflightdeck.com however learnt that the airline’s station manager could not ascertain when the flight was going to operate and told the aggrieved passengers that there is no hotel accommodation for the time being, which further sent them into a frenzy.
However, in Med-view’s reaction, the airline explained that its passengers were being denied boarding to come to Lagos, thus creating the lacuna.
The airline’s statement signed by Executive Director, Business Development and Commercial, Isiaq Na-Allah read, “We wish to inform our numerous passengers who were scheduled to travel on our flight in and out of London and Lagos today 26 Jan on the fact of the situation.”
“After the departure of our flight from Lagos to London on Wednesday 24 Jan, we were informally informed by our handling agent that they will not be providing services to our aircraft. We immediately sought intervention of the Gatwick Authority who is expected to be unbiased but joined the fray surprisingly. Not wanting to take chances, we sought for alternative handling arrangements to avert an ugly situation but this proved abortive.”
“Our passengers who were scheduled to come to Lagos on this service were therefore denied boarding and we had to provide accommodations and logistics for them with the hope that we will clear the issue the next day and then operate the service.”
“Our European partner, EAA came and intervened but this also proved abortive. This we view strongly as unethical and draws a suspicious motive. In order to avoid more embarrassing situations we protected these passengers on other alternative carriers to Lagos. We strongly regret this situation.”
“As it became evident that our airplane will not be allowed to come and position to Lagos for our next rotation to London, we had no choice other than to cancel our London service today, Friday 26 Jan. This we effectively communicated to our passengers and protected them on other carriers. While some accepted the offer, some rejected insisting they want a particular carrier. We are presently working to resolve with these passengers.”
