By Muiz Banire SAN
In the past, I have had cause to comment on the official and unofficial misconducts pervading our various airports, particularly in Lagos and Kano. The situation was so bad then that it took the intervention of the erstwhile Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osibajo, GCON, SAN, to bring some measures of sanity to the Airports. Prior to the intervention, you hardly could differentiate the airports from motor parks, the exclusive terrain of touts. Both uniformed and ununiformed officials; legitimate staff, and unofficial wanderers operated in the airports with impunity. Harassment, molestation and extortion of passengers were the order of the day.
In this respect, I am choosing to ignore the insalubrious state of the facilities and other infrastructure in the airports, as this is a story for another day but which remains a nightmare. Although, there is a new facility at some of the international airports which is still exciting, this is equally without noticeable defects and maintenance challenges. Factually, however, the unscheduled visit of the then Vice President assisted greatly in substantially reducing the menace associated with that era.
As opined above, some degree of sanity was enthroned. Regrettably, as if awaiting the departure of that administration, and as soon as the new administration resumed, business as usual returned. There are now full activities of touts, particularly those in uniforms, in terms of harassment and extortion at the airports.
You hardly can pass through the airports, particularly the international wing, without some form of harassment, molestation or extortion. The situation has degenerated to the level that you have to be at all times vigilant whilst transiting through the airport, otherwise you will easily lose any of your personal effects without any trace. I have had cause recently to intimate my friend and brother, Mr. Festus Keyamo, SAN, who is the Honourable Minister for Aviation on this. My hope and expectation are that shortly, something positive will occur to arrest the drift. The above is simply prefatory to the crux of my engagement in this discourse as I have hitherto addressed the issues. My destination in this conversation centers on the irresponsible and reckless manner in which the local airlines operate.
From my observation and experience on the local routes, there seems to be no law, regulations nor guidelines governing their operations. I say this because even where such instruments exist, the simple fact that they are not enforced, implies their non-existence. There is so much impunity reigning in the arena, to the ridiculous extent that the officials of the airlines sometimes believe that they are doing the passengers a favour. This is in spite of the astronomical rise in fares, justifiable or unjustifiable, depending on which side of the divide the commentator falls. The situation is now further compounded by the depletion in the total fleet of the airlines, for reasons attributable to foreign currency scarcity and exchange fluctuation; rise in the aviation fuel prices, increase in the associated levies and taxes and general conditions of living in the country, inclusive of inflation. Most spare parts for the maintenance of the aircrafts are purchased in united states dollars, a currency on rampage presently.
As remarked above, this has not only grounded some of the aircrafts, it has resulted in the cannibalization of the grounded ones by way of salvage to maintain the airworthy aircrafts. The expectation, in the light of the above reality, would have been downward review of the schedules of the airlines, but alas, this is not so as they still hold fast to the unrealistic schedules with the fewer aircrafts. If the import of the operations is simply to place the aircrafts on air all the time, I would care not, as that is the natural habitat of aircrafts. Similarly, if the operations still meet the expectations of the passengers, I will grudge them not.
Unfortunately, however, the maintained schedules and operations impose misery and sorrow on the passengers. As expected, the depletion in the fleet implies that there are now fewer aircrafts that are airworthy. The natural offshoot of this, on one hand, is the scramble for seats, while on the other hand is the operation of erratic and unreliable schedules. To compound the situation, some of the limited available aircrafts are at times chartered, thereby further distorting the operational schedules of the airlines.
The implication of the foregoing is that passengers get stranded for hours at the airports, at times, resulting in the eventual cancellation of the flights. The undue delay by the airlines portends so many implications for the passengers. Some of the passengers are on commercial appointments, these are often frustrated, with economic losses to some of them. Some passengers, as a result of the trauma they are subjected to due to the unreasonable delays or cancellations, develop heath complications. In fact, the tension alone is sufficient to birth depression in some passengers.
Most miss their personal engagements, medical and official. The list of the consequences of the inordinate delays is endless. It is best imagined than experienced. Time, it is said, is money. They steal the passengers’ time, which are not recoverable again till death. But for the complexity, the airlines operators ought to be prosecuted as thieves of time. The worst aspect is that energy supplies are occasionally cut off, or ceases, thus compounding the already bad and suffocating situation, oven-like environment. In some instances, no announcement or explanation as to the cause of delay is made, thereby leaving the passengers to gasping and guess work. Even where such reasons are advanced, the integrity is often doubtful.
As they know that they will be excused on the ground of technical defects, that constitutes their main rhythm. It is sparingly that you hear of operational reason that can earn them some disapprovals and reprimands. Again, as if those are insufficient, they overbooked under fictitious names at times, and start selling at exorbitant fares due to the pressure of non-availability. This vice is largely perpetrated by the officials. Again, no sanction, and as such, it is condoned and encouraged. The worst is even the human relations of the airline officials, where you are lucky to find one to make enquiry from, that are that of insolence.
Another worthy area of concern is the deliberate booking of flights, with the fore knowledge that the flights will not take off on time or as scheduled; or will never take off. In these instances, they have the fore knowledge but do so to exploit the passengers. The strategy is to frustrate such passengers into purchase of alternate tickets, and the abandoning of the original tickets. For passengers with no time, and those who are not frequent patrons of those routes, that is the end time of the tickets. They fully know that a sizeable number of the frustrated passengers that have abandoned the flights due to unreasonable delay or cancellation, have no time nor patience to start pursuing the refund. The implication of this is that the funds end up being embezzled by the airlines. This is systemic fraud perpetrated by the airlines with impunity. Even where the passenger chooses to pursue the refund, the procedure is so complex and cumbersome as to constitute an impediment.
The whole arrangement is simply a scam that needs to be investigated, monitored and uncovered. It is the continuity of this ‘Ponzi scheme’ without any reprehension or reprimand from any authority, that is making not only the nefarious activities entrenched, but the operators operating with impunity. The inability to curtail the activities of the scammers suggests the absence of regulations, and by extension, the non-existence of regulators.
What is the essence of regulations when it is not being enforced, nor impactful? Are there really even regulators on ground? It is appearing that it is a totally deregulated environment with no rules. Being a victim of some of the atrocities in recent times compelled my enquiry into the issues the discovery of which validates my assertions above.
Common signposts on the rights of passengers and the mode of exercising those rights, which used to dot the local airports, have suddenly vanished. The rationale behind the disappearance remains a misery. In those days, I took advantage of the instructions on the signposts to ventilate my issues. Just two weeks ago, I was a victim of the same unexplained delay. As a matter of fact, and at the risk of advertising for the Valuejet Airline, except my schedule does not fit into the airline’s operation, I hardly fly any other airline on Abuja route again.
On this very occasion, I had booked my return ticket for Monday evening on the preceding Friday morning on Valuejet. The very evening that the schedule changed, I was notified immediately via a test message. That compelled me to search for alternatives, leading me to buy the tickets of Maxair and United Airlines simultaneously for the trip. This was done out of my desperation to meet the appointments I had given the potential lawyers that were waiting in my office to sign their Bencher’s forms.
The idea behind purchasing the two tickets of the airlines was to catch any of the two latest by 4 pm. Interestingly and as now become conventional with them, the earliest of the two, which was the United Airlines, departed around 6.30 pm ultimately, with no explanation or apology. I honestly cannot count the number of tickets I have had to forfeit in circumstances of this nature. That Maxair ticket is gone forever as I hardly have any trip to make with the airline. While wasting away at the airport and waiting for the flights, I had searched all over for information points or signposts to lodge complaints but none was seen. Barely over a week ago, I stumbled on a news item on social media on the penalty for missing or delayed luggage.
In the same piece, I found in the content the suggestion by Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority that there is equally penalty for delayed refund. No allusion has been made to the other issues raised in this conversation, nor the critical issue of the information being signposted at our various local airports. The absence of this has continued to embolden the airlines to continue operating with impunity. For how long this will continue, your guess is as good as mine. All I can conclude with is that the appropriate authorities need to wake up from their slumber and address the issues. The absent-mindedness of the regulators might not be unconnected with the fact that most political leaders have deserted the commercial flights for private jets or when last did you hear in the crew announcement, “Your Excellency” …again? God save the country as we are fully now left in His mighty hands. The regulators have outsourced ultimately their responsibilities to God in the usual and characteristic fashion in the country. .
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