Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
TRAVELLERS in the last couple of days have not found it funny as many of them have been stranded at airports across the country as domestic airlines blame unavailability of Jet A1 (aviation fuel) to carry out scheduled flight operations as well as with the inherent problems of over booking where passengers have complained that airlines claim that flights booked for are filled up.
A visit to the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) this morning shows an enormous number of passengers waiting for their planned flights which seem to be called in trickles as the travelers are groaning over what some described as a horrendous experience.
The public address systems have announced several delayed flights from Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja
Airlines have said that there is a lingering fuel scarcity which has affected airline operations with airlines getting lower than 35 per cent of daily volume requirement, leading to a lot of cancellation of flights last Saturday.
Daniel Agba told nigerianflighhtdeck.com this morning that the flights are being delayed because of fuel but that there were other issues including resolving some overbooked flights.
“Things have been terrible, delays all over the place as well as cancellations, this is unacceptable. Someone needs to tell these airlines that people use them for speed but if they insist on delaying the whole day we will probably go on the roads or better yet rails if they get that online because this is just wrong, I have been here since to seven for a nine o clock flight.”
At the Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal 2 (MMA2)yesterday things were not entirely different as passengers were seen complaining about certain airlines and their delays.
Arik Air had last week hinted on the jet A1 issue and has apologized to passengers to bear with them in the current circumstance.
The Spokesman of the airlines, Adebanji Ola, confirmed that Arik was experiencing a larger impact of this scarcity compared to other airlines.
Ola said: “The airline requires a daily supply of approximately 500,000 liters of Jet-A1 for its operations but it has been getting between 180,000 and 200,000 over the past 10 days, which has severely impacted the scheduled flight operations.
“The airline is appealing for the understanding of its passengers who have been booked to travel on its flights. Passengers are also advised to always visit the airline’s website for information about their flights,” Ola had said.
