*Destroy FAAN facilities
By Ada Okafor
There was complete pandemonium at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja on Wednesday when passengers staged a protest over flight delays by Max Air.
The protesting passengers complained that they were not informed about the delay until they began to register their grievances.
In a video currently trending on social media, the travellers were seen destroying the airlines’ counters and other facilities of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
This comes a few months after the Nigerian government said airline operators in the country must refund the full cost of travel tickets to passengers after a two-hour delay.
“On domestic flights, delay beyond one hour, a carrier should provide refreshment, and one telephone call, or one SMS, or one e-mail. They should send you an SMS or email or call you to say, ‘I am sorry, I am delaying for one hour.
“Delay for two hours and beyond, the carrier shall reimburse passengers the full volume of their tickets. For delays between 10pm and 4am, the carrier shall provide hotel accommodation, refreshment, meal, two free calls, SMS, email, and transport to-and-fro airport,” the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika had said.
Data released by NACA show that in the first quarter of this year, out of the 14,662 domestic flights operated in the country, 7,554 were delayed.
Also, 562 flights were delayed out of the 1,871 international flights operated out of the country. Nine international and 149 domestic flights were cancelled.
Currently, there are nine domestic airlines operating scheduled flights in the country, while 19 airlines operate international flights in and out of Nigeria, according to the NCAA data.
