Chinonso Ugokwe, an Imo State resident, has narrated how Arik Air withheld his N51,000 after the airline cancelled an Owerri-to-Abuja flight.

Ugokwe told FIJ that he had booked the flight on behalf of a friend on November 26, 2022.

“During that period, a friend of mine that had come visiting was about returning to her Abuja base. While planning her trip, she asked me to help her book a flight,” Ugokwe said.

“While searching for available flights, I discovered that Arik Air had an Owerri-to-Abuja flight on November 28, so I booked and made the N51,000 payment two days to the departure date.

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“On the day she was supposed to travel with the airline, she suddenly received a message from the airline. It was stated in the message that due to ‘operational reasons’, the flight had been cancelled. There was no follow-up message to the announcement from the airline on the way forward.

“Arik Air did not state whether passengers would be able to re-book their flights or not. The airline did not also tell anyone if its plan was to refund all passengers. It simply went silent on everyone.”

Ugokwe told FIJ that he subsequently reached out to Arik Air via its Facebook page for an update on the flight cancellation.

“After reaching out to Arik Air via Facebook, I was told to get in touch with their refund unit via email for a resolution,” Ugokwe said.

“When I sent an email to the refund unit, I was sent a form to fill. When I filled the form and sent it back to them, I was also asked to forward my statement of account, showing that the N51,000 was indeed debited from my account when I booked the flight. I quickly got the statement of account and also sent it to them as they requested.

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“After this, I was told that the refund would be made within 10 working days. All these happened in December.”

Ugokwe told FIJ that despite promising to refund the N51,000, Arik Air was yet to resolve the matter.

“Since making the refund promise, all I keep getting from Arik Air has been automated responses. Nothing concrete has come from them since December,” he said.

“I became furious and reached out to them again on Facebook, demanding my N51,000. I also saw other people complaining about how the airline had refused to refund their money after cancelling flights.

“To my utter surprise, whoever was handling the page on behalf of the airline blocked me from further complaining.

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“Presently, I can not even send them any messages on Facebook any more. Since December, Arik Air has refused to refund my money.”

FIJ sent emails to Arik Air’s refund and customer care desks for comments on Friday morning, but they had not been responded to at press time.