Published 12th Mar, 2024

By Emmanuel Uti

Ignatius Igbokwe (not real name), a resident of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has accused United Nigeria Airlines of selling already-booked seats to the highest bidder.

He further accused the airline of treating its passengers without regard over their constant cancellations and rescheduling of flights, sometimes without formal notice.

Igbokwe told FIJ that his wife and one-month-old baby were to fly to Lagos from Abuja on March 7 with United Nigeria Airlines but could not do so because of several issues with the airline.

He said the initial time for his family’s flight after booking the tickets was 4 pm on March 7 but it was later changed to 5 pm on the same day.

According to Igbokwe, he and his wife were on the road to the airport on March 7 when he received another email from the company, which stated that their flight had been postponed until 7:30 pm that same day.

Tired, Igbokwe and his wife drove back home but returned to the airport by 6:30 pm for the 7:30 pm flight.

“When we got to the check-in terminal, United Nigeria Airlines offficials said we could not go in and that they had closed the check-in. We met some people when we got there; they were agitating to go in, but they told them they were late for the flight,” Igbokwe told FIJ.

“On their terms and conditions, the airline said they would stop checking in passengers 45 minutes before takeoff. But my wife and I arrived here an hour before takeoff, yet she and my baby were precluded from boarding.”

Igbokwe said that he tried talking to the cashiers about the obvious travesty but they did not respond. And when some of them did, their refrain was, “There is nothing we can do.”

According to Igbokwe, it was when people who did not book a ticket online were allowed to board that it dawned on him that the flight was overbooked.

Aggrieved passengers called the attention of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), whose officials promptly arrived, met with the staffers of United Nigeria Airlines and instructed passengers to write their names and ticket numbers on a sheet of paper for the next available flight the following day.

He said the FAAN officials said the time for the next flight available was 7:30 pm on March 8 but advised all disgruntled passengers whose names were on the sheet of paper to arrive at the airport before 2 pm, which he and his family adhered to.

Again, when Igbokwe and his wife arrived at the airport on March 8, the airline officials told him his family would not fly. A woman whose children said she was 95 was also refused entry after the draining episode of the previous day.

“We now had to involve the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). They swiftly arrived and instructed the United Nigeria Airlines staff members to do something. In all of this, we discovered that the airline had one available fight and they’d been shoehorning people into their planes,” he said.

“I heard some passengers complain that their flights were rescheduled without notification. They fixed us on that plane at the end of the day. This was because they tried to bring in people who didn’t book online.

“When one of their female staffers was trying to change our ticket to reflect the day of departure, she received a call from someone who said they had passengers who had to be on the flight at all costs. They have been selling the ticket to the highest bidder.”

FIJ emailed United Nigeria Airlines for comments on the matter, but they had not responded at press time.

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