Dark and tall with a beard trimmed to perfection, he was an incredible advertisement for the dark-blue Air Force uniform.
Group Captain Nnaemeka Badaru had just retired from the force and itching to leave the Sam Ethnan Air Force Base in Oshodi, Lagos State, for his palatial house in Abuja, where his wife, Alhaja Zainab, alongside friends, had prepared a feast to celebrate his homecoming.
With a 1pm outbound flight for LOS to ABV booked on an indigenous airline, Efizzy (showing off without substance), Badaru, while speaking over the phone with his wife in his about-to-be vacated cubicle-like quarter, received a message from Efizzy that his flight had been delayed for four hours. Two hours to the rescheduled time, he got another message that the flight was cancelled.
Wearing a grim look and his moustache almost poking his eyeballs, he yelled: “Wetin be this one like this? Food wasted. Homecoming disrupted. Unbelievable!”
Enter Jimmy Badaru: a student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The Group Captain’s only son anticipated the celebration that would greet his father’s homecoming and vowed not to miss it even though he was in Enugu.
One week before the D-day, Jimmy booked a 9am flight for ENU to ABV, but four hours before schedule, he received a message from the airline saying: “Dear esteemed passenger, We are truly sorry that your flight with us from Enugu to Abuja for today August 25, 2024, was cancelled due to operational reason…”
Enraged but determined, he decided to travel by road to beat his father to the Federal Capital Territory. With no immediate refund from the airline and limited funds, he joined a 7am bus leaving for his destination. On the Enugu to Makurdi road, his vehicle was attacked by kidnappers. Words reached home and the Badarus were thrown into confusion.
Although fictional, the Badaru family’s story is a concrete example of how flight disruptions continue to distort travel plans in Nigeria, leading passengers to incur additional expenses for accommodation and transportation.
Currently, the rate of flight delays and cancellations has assumed an alarming dimension, emerging as one of the biggest challenges affecting domestic travellers.
Specifically, indigenous airlines have gained notoriety for this practice that sometimes leaves passengers with the worst alternative of travelling by road.
Saturday Vanguard findings showed that no Nigerian airline is immune to the practice that has left every intending traveller to envisage such development.
The situation, which has largely affected socio-economic activities across the country is becoming alarming, thereby compounding the pains of air travellers, who are currently faced with exorbitant airfares.
Past data from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, and recent complaints from Nigerians paint a concerning picture of the state of air travel in the country.
The air transport regulator had said between January and December 2022, domestic airlines reported 47,144 delayed flights, with some of the top carriers leading in these disruptions.
In February 2024, the NCAA also revealed that 53 per cent of all flights operated in Nigeria in 2023 were delayed, while 1 per cent experienced cancellation.
Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON, averred that most of the delays and cancellations result from factors beyond their control.
Vice-president of AON, Dr Allen Onyema, had identified passenger behaviour as one of the major causes of flight delays in Nigeria, arguing that travellers have refused to accept the culture of rescheduling when flights are cancelled.
“Let me tell you why delays and cancellations will persist in this country. Apart from safety, security, weather and other issues, it is unruly passenger behaviour. The misunderstanding of how airlines’ scheduled operations are supposed to be run is a major cause of flight delays,” he explained.
Dismissing AON’s notion, Executive Director of General Sales and Solution, GSSM, an aviation consultancy firm, Mr Babatunde Adeniji, told Saturday Vanguard that if an earlier disruption triggered the misbehaviour, passengers can’t be held responsible.
Adeniji claimed that any approach of blaming passengers is rarely helpful, urging airlines and staff to have a safe operating environment.
