Over the years, air travellers in Nigeria have been violently rebelling against airlines when flight schedule decisions like flight delays and cancellations do not favour them. The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and airlines have decided to come together to put an end to the menace.
What any air traveller in Nigeria will notice within few weeks of his visit to the airport is passengers confronting airlines’ ground staff, as a result of delayed or cancelled flights.
Sometimes they beat up the staff, sometimes confront Aviation Security (AVSEC) of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), destroying desktops and other equipment of the airlines in their wake.
This is a unique behaviuor peculiar to Nigeria and Nigerians, and they do this at Nigerian airports intentionally but they do not do that of outside Nigeria, especially when they travel overseas or to any other destination in the world.
Many industry observers posit that Nigerian passengers do this because they know that they can do anything at the airport and possibly get away with it and also, due to lack of enlightenment about how airlines operate. They believe that any delay is caused by the airline; even when airlines or the airports announces that delays are caused by weather, VIP movement or any other factor.
When passengers violently confront airline’s ground staff they cause further delay of their own flights and the flights of others because the equipment they usually destroy are the same equipment that will be used to board the passengers. Why some industry stakeholders attribute part of the menace to lack of enlightenment is because the air travelers do not know that most of the time, airline may decide to cancel flight for the safety of the travelers.
Major Causes of Flight Delays
According to the International Air Transport Association (ICAO), key factors that cause flight delays and cancellation globally and the ones that also affect Nigeria peculiarly include weather, which is the major cause of flight delay in Nigeria. Other factors according to ICAO, include technical issues like when the aircraft develops fault or picks a bird in bird strike or hits an antelope while taking off or landing on the runway and when the airport terminal is crowded like during the high season of the Yuletide, when baggage management becomes difficult and causes delays.
There are also security issues, when security threats in airport leads to suspension of flight movement until after investigation. These happen when there is insider threat or other threats at the airport. There is also late arrival of aircraft when an aircraft is delayed by many factors, including technical problem, delay in passenger facilitation, weather, congestion on the tarmac and other factors. Another major one that airlines are often silent about is fuel supply delays. In Nigeria where is no fuel radiant at the ramp, so bowsers supply fuel to the aircraft on the tarmac. Bowsers could be delayed by traffic on the road, for example, from the tank farms at Apapa to the airport or from where the oil marketing companies have their tank farm to the tarmac. Another major factor that causes flight delay include: ‘operation of the national aviation system with delay.’ A good example of this in Nigeria is VIP movement, which happens when a very prominent personality like the President of Nigeria or the Vice President of Nigeria is about to take off from the airport. The Air Traffic Controller orders temporary suspension of flights until presidential jet takes off or lands.
Weather Disruptions
Bad weather is the major cause of flight delays and cancelations in air travel. According to aviationfile.com, heavy rain and low visibility, as intense rainfall can significantly reduce visibility, making landing and take-off hazardous. This can lead to delays or even cancellations, diversions for safety reasons.
“Thunderstorms can be dangerous for both aircraft and passengers. Flights may be delayed or rerouted to avoid these stormy patches,” aviationfile.com said.
Also in Europe and other parts of the world, freezing temperatures and moisture combine to disrupt flights. Ice can accumulate on the wings and other critical parts of the aircraft. This added weight can affect the aircraft’s performance and handling, leading to delays or cancellations.
“Rain can have a significant impact on air traffic, both in terms of safety and efficiency. Heavy rain can reduce visibility, making it difficult for pilots to see the runway and other aircraft. It can also create turbulence, which can make flying uncomfortable and dangerous.
“In addition, rain can make it difficult for aircraft to generate enough lift to take off and land. This is because water droplets on the wings can reduce the amount of air that flows over them. In severe cases, this can lead to an aircraft losing lift and crashing. For these reasons, air traffic controllers often impose delays or even cancel flights during heavy rain. This can be a major inconvenience for passengers, but it is necessary to ensure the safety of all involved,” aviationfile.com, said in a statement.
Nigerian Passengers Attitude
From the analysis above, it is clear that weather and other extraneous factors beyond the airline cause flight delays but air travellers in Nigeria have one way reaction to it, disruption of the airline’s operations.
A manager of one of the airports terminals in Lagos told THISDAY that Nigerian passengers do not care about what caused the delay or cancellation; once his flight did not depart as scheduled, “he or she becomes incensed, restless and angry and begins to express his anger with his hands.”
“What really disappoints me is that passengers do not consider the reason for the delay before they start fighting the airline. Not that any reason should make them fight the airline but the truth is that weather delays are beyond anybody’s cause. It is natural phenomenon. I also come to know that passengers do not believe most of the information given by the airlines as reason for delays. The expression they hate most is, due to operational reasons. But I know why airlines use that phrase. Do you know that if you tell Nigerian passengers in Nigeria that we just finished working on the engine of the aircraft, some of them may decline to embark on the trip? But if they are in the UK and British Airways tells them, ‘we just finished working on the engine of the aircraft or we are working on the engine of the aircraft’, they won’t bother to complain. So, you see unconscious rejection of your own, which is the major problem with us. This happens across board, among the elite too,” the Lagos Airport Terminal official said.
IATA’s Position
Frowning on the menace of unruly passengers and how they disrupt flight operations, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said: “There is growing concern from airlines, governments and passengers at the increasing frequency and severity of these incidents that involve violence against crew and other passengers, harassment and failure to comply with safety and public health instructions. Committed by a minority of passengers, unruly incidents have a disproportionate impact, threatening safety, disrupting other passengers and crew and causing delays and diversions. However, due to loopholes in existing international air law, such offenses often go unpunished.”
FAAN’s Collaboration
As the manager of most airports in Nigeria and the agency vested with authority to train aviation security officials that man all the airports in the country, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), has promised to collaborate with airlines to end the threat of unruly passengers.
FAAN’s security operatives have often arrested passengers that exhibit restive behaviour, both in the aircraft and at the terminal and have taken them to court. AVSEC officials are now poised to investigate and arrest anyone that may violently protest at the airport because of flight delay or cancellation. The security operatives have at different situations arrested passengers engaged in on-board theft who become violent when accosted by the cabin crew.
The management of FAAN said that it would deploy more security officials at the airport terminals to monitor the behaviour of passengers, especially when flight delay or cancellation is announced.
About Flight Delays, Cancellations
Recently at a press conference, the Chairman and CEO of Air Peace Limited, Dr. Allen Onyema, explained that flight delays and cancellations were global phenomena aligned with air travel. He wondered why Nigerian travelers react differently to such announcements and always refuse to listen to explanations.
“It is not as if delays and cancellations are synonymous with Nigerian airlines. But what are the factors causing the delays? If it is about communication, we communicate, but there are times our staff out of fear of what the passengers will do become confused about what to do. If they announce any development, they may not know how they will respond to that. They may start beating them up as usual.
“Maybe an aircraft lands now, and they say, oh, guys, something happened. There is going to be three hours delay. How are we going to tell these passengers that the delay is for three hours? You see staff running around, running around in circles, they don’t know what to do. There is one fact that passengers should know. If we can be civil at airports, you have airlines that will serve you better. It will significantly cut these issues of delays. Let me tell you what happens. We go out of our way to do what is not done in civil aviation, to satisfy a particular group of passengers,” Onyema said.
According to him, Nigerians travelling to Ghana, Togo, or to any other country, keep quiet and obey the rules but when they arrive Nigeria, they become belligerent, restive and irate.
“Let us run aviation the way it is run worldwide. Let passengers follow the rule and they will know that peaceful proceeding at the airports will benefit them more. Because if you give airlines that opportunity to run it the way it is run, your time will be shortened in handling your issues. But when they become unruly, they cause problems for everybody. That is what happens. No airline enjoys it when flights are delayed or cancelled. It will cost the airline additional money to delay flight or cancel any flight,” he said.
If air travellers know airlines lose revenue anytime they cancel flights and it also disrupts their operations, travellers will know that airlines also suffer whenever they cancel flights and therefore, flight delays or cancellation are not meant to punish them but largely to save their lives at a huge expenses to the airlines.
