There have been frequent complaints by Nigerian air travellers of maltreatment by foreign carrier, Qartar Airways, especially within Nigeria airports.
This suffices it to say that the airline practices the anomaly of delaying passengers with impunity; no arrangement of any form to provide them comfort and convenience in such cases contrary to the Civil Aviation Act 2022, yet the airline goes scot free at the end.
Passengers are of the opinion that it is high time the authorities in Nigeria concerned rose up to the occasion to address these insults and maltreatment.
One such act of breach of contract and exploitation involved 12 passengers airlifted by Qartar Airways on Saturday July 13, 2024, from Doha to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. The flight which arrived at the MMIA at 9.00 hours according to the stranded passengers was meant to be routed to Port Harcourt straight being the final destination of these 12 passengers coming all the way from London.
One of the passengers, Chief Ernest Elochukwu, recounted the incident to our correspondent frowning at Qartar Airways’ act of impunity and calling on the aviation authorities in Nigeria to wade in this regard.
He said the 12 passengers had already contacted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s Consumer Protection Unit when they saw that Qartar Airways was going the wrong way but were simply told they would look into it.
He wondered if the regulatory authority would actually take up the matter but wished the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development would ensure matters of this magnitude are nipped in the bud.
His words: “This one must get to the Minister. We arre 12 passengers that were involved in this incident. And as per the report we made to the NCAA, the itinerary on our tickets was Port Harcourt-Doha-London. And in return it is London-Doha-Port Harcourt.
“However, we were surprised that on getting to Doha on our return we were now routed to Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos. We believe that it wasn’t a big deal, that maybe they can send somebody to the closest airport if there are needs for that. So we agreed and we came here and then arrived in Lagos about 9.00 hours or around that time.
“And then the Qatar management here or the Qatar staff here told us that they were going to take us to the local airport where we have to wait for the flight that is scheduled to take off around 18.30 hours. Meaning that we are expected to be at Lagos airport for about nine hours plus, because we are not even sure when they are going to take off.
“So we now asked them in line with the Convention elsewhere that when flights are delayed passengers are put to where they would see some convenience like a hotel or lounge for that long wait. But they declined and told us that they didn’t get approval from Qartar over there at Doha and ever since then they have been tossing us up and down. They simply declined so that probably if you now ask somebody you say that it’s because they didn’t get approval as a response to why we are left stranded for nine hours plus.
“Our contention is that aviation is of international standard and that we are meant to understand that Qatar is a five-star airline and so why would they not be adopting international standard?
“We are supposed to go to Port Harcourt, that’s what our itinerary is on the tickets that were issued to us and so Qatar Airways taking us from Doha and bringing us to Lagos and not making arrangements for our comfort is the issue.
“We think, we believe that this is because the type of treatment that they mete out to Nigerians is very unbecoming, it is subhuman and our insistence that we will see to the end that this type of treatment is stopped is why we are protesting about this.”
According to Elochukwu, the NCAA was yet to give them any concrete response they can rely on.
His words: “Well we were given a promise by the NCAA that they will look into it and we hope that it’s not the Nigerian way of looking into a matter because many things assume different meanings in Nigeria whenever you are told we are looking into it.
“You don’t know whether the matter has been swept under the carpet but we hope that someone should take action and not necessarily because of ourselves but because we are meant to understand that this has been the standard treatment being meted out to passengers to the extent that some people had slept for three days waiting for this connecting flight to Port Harcourt on account of Qartar Airways.
Elochukwu added that Qartar Airways gave the passengers the impression that it is the British Airways (BA) that brought them from London and should be blamed, but he argued that the arrangement BA and Qartar Airways had should not be a concern to the passengers because it was Qartar Airways flight that they booked.
“Now the impression they gave was that it wasn’t from them but the internal arrangement between Qartar Airways and British Airways is not our headache. As passengers we demand and we deserve a minimum comfort.
“We are asking for a waiting lounge or hotel where we will go and freshen up because some of us started this journey early yesterday from London, in fact all of us. So we needed to freshen up and wait for another nine hours again to proceed to Port Harcourt.
“And that is what we are being told that it is not possible. BA took us from London to Doha based on their arrangement with Qartar Airways. The argument by Qartar that they are not to be blamed does not hold any water because whatever led BA to airlift us from London to Doha was an internal arrangement between the two airlines.
“Now it is Qatar Airways that brought us from Doha to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, whereas our itinerary is Doha to Port Harcourt so giving us the impression that it was BA’s problem we don’t know where that one comes from.”
Another passenger, Kingsley Ude, lamented that Qartar Airways is fond of this type of ill treatment mostly when it is in a Nigerian airport.
Ude said he had suffered such a delayed flight by Qartar Airways in Manchester but that the treatment was much different and appreciable.
He wondered why it is different here at the Lagos Airport and wished that this anomaly be corrected with immediate effect.
“This is not my first time. I think I had a similar experience one time I would say, not stereotype, but we had a delayed flight that was going to affect my connecting flight to Doha and instantaneously they offered hotel accommodation over there at Manchester. That was Qatar Airways, I think sometime last year.
“So if they have delays option oftentimes they tend to make arrangements if it’s somewhere outside or in Doha but coming down here in Nigeria they just tend to want to allow people go away and go through whatever stress and they feel it’s just something that you should sort on your own because it’s still unethical to actually keep people to wait for nine and a half hours without any arrangement.
“Other places when they have six hours and anything beyond two, three, or six hours delay they make arrangements for accommodation and somewhere to relax while they sort out all the effects of the extended impact of such delays, and coming down here in Nigeria and they just don’t want to do anything. It is very unfair to the customer,” Ude lamented.
Also toeing the line of Ude, Mr. Winston Anyaoku, as a frequent traveller pointed out that foreign airlines including Qartar Airways behave differently overseas unlike here where they belittle Nigerians.
He said: “That’s exactly what I wanted to correct when I heard my friend say coming down here. Yes, specifically, coming down to Nigeria; overseas, they don’t operate the same way. They do differently overseas, but I think we are being looked down on.
“So in Nigeria, they operate differently the lady representing them said she would want to contact first and she’s been trying to make that contact, if she was really sincere but nothing came out of it so she will continue to say she has and we’ve been here since 9 o’clock, it is 1pm now.
“You would imagine we have been waiting from 9 o’clock in the morning and we are to wait till 6.30 p.m. in the evening to board a flight in an airport, wearing the same old clothes we wore from London.
“This is not acceptable and we should find a way to make certain things work better in this country. Nigeria should not suffer in every form of it.”
He blamed the authorities in Nigeria, especially the NCAA that is supposed to handle matters like this under its Consumer Protection Directorate, maintaining that these things do not happen in other countries.
“Of course, these things don’t happen in other countries. Having a good standard operating procedure this shouldn’t be happening, the authorities should put things in place and they should have a standard that every operator and every carrier should operate with so that our people don’t suffer.
“We didn’t commit a crime to go buy their ticket so why should we suffer?” Anyaoku lamented.
Our correspondent while conducting this interview with the 12 stranded passengers at MMIA met an Aviation Security (AVSEC) official who would not want his name in print, confirming that actually Qartar Airways has been in the habit of keeping passengers stranded at the airport on account of connecting flights to Port Harcourt.
“It has been their way for some time, the other day some passengers had to wait for three days before they were airlifted to Port Harcourt,” he informed.
According to the NCAA Act, it is the responsibility of Qartar Airways to make an arrangement with a domestic airline to airlift the passengers to Port Harcourt and if the domestic flight is not immediate as in this case Qartar Airways ought to put them in a hotel and provide them with all the amenities they would need until the time of the Port Harcourt flight.
Unfortunately, our correspondent gathered that Qartar Airways dumped the passengers at MMA2 by 1-30 p.m. until they boarded the Port Harcourt flight at 6.45pm. The airline did not provide any form of convenience or comfort for these 12 stranded passengers.