Dozens of angry passengers yesterday had a showdown with officials of Virgin Nigeria Airline at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja.
According to the passengers who have been stranded for upward of three days, they were being told there were cancellations of flights but no other explanation was given as the reason for the cancellation.
According to one Hadiza, they had earlier come in the morning around 12 noon only to be told the flight had been rescheduled for 4 pm.
“When we got here at 3.30p.m, we were told our seats had been re allocated to other people for whatever reason we don’t know. According to the Virgin Nigeria flyer, check-in closes one hour before departure and we got here almost two hours before departure and yet our seats had been given out.
Another angry passenger who refused to give her name was seen shouting at the top of her voice for being delayed for two days.
“Yesterday, when we got here, nobody told us anything until around 7pm when they said the flight had been cancelled that we should come first thing this morning (Sunday). Today, they said the morning flight had been rescheduled for afternoon. Infact, an official of the airline called us in the hotel they lodged us having cancelled the flight on Saturday. Now they are telling me, I cannot travel today again, that I have to be on tomorrow’s flight (i.e. Monday). We don’t know why they are doing this to us and nobody is ready to talk to us.
You can see the way the officials have been treating passengers. They have been ignoring passengers and turning us up and down.”Some of the customers who had babies with them had a very difficult time calming their babies who by this time had become restive especially as adults (Virgin officials and customers) were having a shouting match over the issue.
Attempt by Thisday to speak with the station Manager proved abortive as he was said not to be around, but one official wearing the name tag A.N. Adam was seen trying to calm fray nerves of some customers and helping to explain.
But Hadiza condemned the attitude of the staff that she said had refused to attend to customers since they arrived the airport.
“Look at that man (pointing at one of the airline staff), he should be sacked. These people lack simple customer service. All we ask of them is to tell us what is happening. No information, nothing. They kept tossing us up and down as if we are babies. This is not fair because we paid for this service and the least they could do is be nice to us and give us information. The authorities need to hear about this, it is not fair at all. If Charles Bronson was in Nigeria, I’d walk up to him and tell him the same thing!
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