Barely 24 hours after suspending its entire flight operations over aircraft insurance renewal, Arik Air yesterday recommenced flight services.
The airline recommenced flight operations at 11:30am, rather than the 11:00am it earlier promised to return to services with Lagos-Abuja flight for “operational reasons.”
Our correspondent who was at the General Aviation Terminal, GAT, of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Lagos where the airline operates its domestic operations, observed that tens of passengers queued behind the airline’s counters, hoping to either purchase air tickets to different destinations or seek refund of their earlier purchased tickets.
However, the early morning flights of the airline could not be operated especially its regional flights out of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos.
Information gathered by our correspondent indicated that its Lagos-Accra flights for 7:20am and 17:15hrs were not operated while the airline’s Lagos-Johannesburg flight also had not resumed for operations.
The first flights to be operated yesterday outside Lagos by the airline were Abuja-Ilorin and Abuja-Sokoto flights, which took off simultaneously at 11:30am at Abuja Airport.
But, airfares charged by the airline have skyrocketed. A one-way ticket from the airline’s counter between Lagos and Abuja was sold for N41,500 from N32,000; Lagos-Port Harcourt, N35,000 from the initial N26,500 while Lagos-Kano has increased to N45,000.
The airline’s Lagos-Accra flights for 7:20am and 17:15hrs remained cancelled while the Lagos-Johannesburg flight also had not resumed.
Arik Air is the largest airline in the country with about 26 aircraft and 120 landings daily from virtually all the airports across the country.
All the cancelled flights of Tuesday were; from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA; FLIGHT: W3300 (ACC) ETD: 07:20HRS, W3392(LBV) ETD:12:00HRS, W3101(LHR) ETD:12:00HRS, W3103(JNB) ETD:13:30HRS, W3304(ACC) ETD: 17:15HRS, W3394(ABJ) ETD 20:30HRS and W3362(LAD) ETD 21:30HRS .
A source close to the airline, confided in our correspondent that the Duty Manager of the airline informed the Consumer Protection Directorate, CPD, of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, that the flights were cancelled due to operational reasons.
The Duty Manager further informed that messages were sent to passengers via text messages, emails, adding that accommodation process was on-going for all passengers that showed up.
At the Ibadan Airport, CPD was informed by the Arik Air staff on duty that flight W3 401 (ABV) STD 13:00hrs was also cancelled due to operational reason (non-availability of JET A1).
According to him, messages were sent to passengers and the flight was expected to depart yesterday, 14/09/16 at 11:35hrs.
Arik flight W3 625 Benin to Los scheduled for 17:00hrs and W3 433 to Abuja scheduled for 16:30hrs have also been cancelled while all its domestic flights from Lagos were also cancelled.
Some of the passengers were rescheduled for yesterday.
A statement from the spokesman of the airline yesterday, Mr. Ola Adebanji advised its clients to discountenance the disparaging allegations, unsubstantiated and uninformed claims about the airline’s inability to meet its financial obligations to aviation fuel marketers and a purported withdrawal of insurance services to Arik Air by its insurers.
He added, “While the current scarcity of aviation JET A1 has impacted on the operations of airlines in the country, Arik Air is in good standing with its fuel suppliers and has been meeting its obligations to them and to our insurers.
“With the regularisation of the required documents relating to the renewal of the insurance, Arik Air will be resuming its normal flying schedule from 1100 hours on Wednesday (yesterday), September 14, 2016. Arik Air regrets the unfortunate inconvenience caused to its customers and reassures our customers of expedient rebooking of any affected flights.”