Stranded Expatriates, Diabetic Patient Without Insulin, Cancer Survivor Missing Medication, Bride In Panic Mode Over Wedding Dress, Another Forced To Buy New One On Wedding Day & Other Victims Of Arik Air’s Raging Baggage Crisis

The victims of latest crisis afflicting troubled air line, Arik are experiencing ”hell on earth”.

And consumer rights protection activist, Sola Salako provides a vivid insight into the ”hell” of these good people whose crimes was to ”patronise” Arik Air in this social media post produced as sourced.

Update on Arik Air Baggage Crisis

Today is Day 4 of the harrowing experience of flying Arik Air from London – Lagos for some Nigerian consumers….and there seems to be no resolution in sight as at when I left the MMIA at about 2:00pm Tuesday December 6th.
As agreed, most passengers returned to the terminal by 6:00am this morning but Arik Air flight did not bring their luggage as promised. In fact, there was NO Arik Air staff anywhere to give any information.

The Arik Air check in counter at the departure terminal was deserted, save the unsuspecting passengers scheduled to fly on Tuesday morning who were abandoned at the counter without any explanation. Some said they received a text from Arik Air at about 11am that the flight was cancelled. Most never received that text.

The Coordinator Lagos Office of Consumer Protection Council CPC, Mr Joshua Ngaddah and his team resumed with the passengers at 6:00am but there was NO Arik Air staff to liaise with. They received complaints from the affected passengers but since there was no representative of Arik Air on site, they could not negotiate on behalf of the consumers.
I spoke to the Director NCAA Consumer Protection Directorate Adamu Abdullahi who assured me they had summoned Arik Air to their office for an emergency meeting to resolve the crisis. I am still waiting for the outcome of that meeting.

Meanwhile, at about 1:00pm, the cabin crew of Arik Air showed up to start boarding passengers for a Lagos-London flight. The angry passengers descended on them raining abuses and refusing to let them check anyone unto the flight.

The foreign captain did his best to explain that the bigger plane was now in Lagos which he was to fly to London today and which has the capacity to hold all outstanding baggage. But the passengers were not ready to listen as this was the same story they have been told for days without their luggage showing up!

According to them, Arik Air must fly an empty plane to London without new passengers solely to airlift their luggage! Anything short of that was unacceptable to them!

I had made efforts with the help of my sister, Ibim Semenitari, to reach the Minister of State for Aviation who called Arik Air and was told they had already sent a plane to London to pick the luggage at about 11am! So you can imagine how shocked and disbelieving we were when we saw the cabin crew at 1pm!

It was glaring to everyone that Arik Air was not factual with the actual state of their management of the crisis! Too many conflicting stories and zero empathy was all they had to give.

I watched helplessly as adult men broke down in tears of frustration. One gentleman had brought 3 expatriates in for a project which was time-bound. The equipment was in the stranded luggage meanwhile he was paying the experts daily for their time as well as hotel and hospitality costs for the 4th night in Lagos (project based out of state)

There were many without medication; a diabetic patient without her insulin for 4 days now; an elderly woman who was a cancer survivor without her medication scared of a relapse because Arik Air checked some people’s hand luggage too; two gentlemen came home to bury their dad but are stuck in Lagos waiting for their luggage ( one of them came home with his kids for the first time! They are wondering why they have no clothes to wear for the past 4 days!

A lady arrived for a wedding last Saturday with the wedding gown stuck in London! They had to go hunt for a new wedding dress on the wedding day! Another wedding dress for a wedding this Saturday is yet to arrive! The bride is in panic mode! One woman with her baby has been wearing the same dress for 4 days, stuck at the airport!

Arik Air didn’t hear any of these people’s stories because Arik Air didn’t care! The Minister of Aviation also doesn’t know their stories. If he did, maybe there will be a retinue of NCAA, FAAN and Ministry of Aviation staff on ground to assist them with information and provide basic needs because they are Nigerian citizens!

All they have is silence and frustrations! I am doing all I can to help them but obviously, I am not connected enough! That hurts!

Maybe someone who is more connected than me will help bring their plight to the President’s notice….or anyone who can give the order to Arik Air to charter a cargo flight and airlift the luggage of 4 plane loads of Nigerians who are fast losing their sense of belonging to this strange nation! Just maybe….

I am broken….