Passengers allege inhumane treatment by Arik Air

London-bound passengers of Arik Air from Lagos aboard flight W3 0101, have criticised the appalling services received from the carrier during their trip on December 12, 2010.

Expressing displeasure at the manner in which the carrier handled the flight, the travelers disclosed that after being cleared by immigration officers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) and boarded their aircraft, a letter informing them that the flight would be routed via Abuja was passed across without any prior notice.

“Several passengers, including myself, were most displeased at this diversion without prior notice as we had all expected based on our contract with Arik Air that we were flying direct to London Heathrow,” said Olabopo Philips, a passenger onboard the flight.

Ms Phillips disclosed that the flight which was scheduled to leave Lagos at 11:10am did not depart until 1pm, adding that the explanation given by the carrier was that the aircraft was being prepared.

“We boarded onto an aircraft in which the internal temperature was at least 40 degrees centigrade. It was considerably hotter on the plane than the outside. We were told that once the plane was fully boarded, the doors shut and the engine started, the air-conditioning would be put on.

“This was not to be. Needless to say, this terribly uncomfortable situation led to very loud complaints by a number of passengers. We were later to discover that the delay was due to protests from the cabin crew who were also unaware and it appeared, unwillingly to fly through Abuja,” she said.

On seeing that the situation was degenerating, with the passengers becoming restive, Ms Phillips disclosed that she appealed with the travelers to press home their grievances in a collective and constructive approach by registering their various complaints.

Making matters worse

All the travelers had to sign a drafted petition against the carrier before the flight proceeded to Abuja. On getting to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at about 2:00pm, Ms Phillips said that they were told that the aircraft was to pick 22 passengers, but that only four persons got onboard; a situation which ignited another round of chaos.

“Whilst in Abuja, the head of the cabin crew asked how long it would take to refuel the plane. She was told 40 mintutes and this information was passed on to us,” she said, adding “Correctly assessing our mood due to the earlier experiences, she told the refuelling team to the hearing of the passengers that the conditions on the plane were unbearable and should refuelling exceed 40 minutes, her crew would disembark. In spite of this threat, the layover in Abuja took 2 hours and the flight did not depart Abuja till 4pm.”

Affirming the claims of Ms Phillips, another traveler aboard the flight who simply gave his name as Mr Idowu disclosed that they got to London, Heathrow at about 10:10pm.

“That journey was so annoying and it will interest you to know that we spent more than six hours extra on a trip that was meant to take about five to six hours,” he said.

No comment from Arik

Repeated efforts by our reporter to get the reaction of Arik Air on the development were not successful as the carrier’s media representative disclosed that the airline had no comment on the allegations.

“We have no comment on that,” said Adebanji Ola, media representative for Arik Air in a telephone conversation with NEXT.

“We boarded onto an aircraft in which the internal temperature was at least 40 degrees centigrade. It was considerably hotter on the plane than the outside. We were told that once the plane was fully boarded, the doors shut and the engine started, the air-conditioning would be put on.

Arik is going from bad to worse.
I so much concur with the above comment as myself and other passengers who returned to the UK on the 4th of December were subjected to similar treatment.

The reason we were given by the captain (who tried cracking a joke, albeit lame) was that the plane had been parked for a long time. So it'd take sometime for the systems in the aircraft to begin working again.

With the snow wahala in the UK, I can only imagine what the service would be like.

another arik problem again!!!

is this the beginning of the end of the airline?