Nigeria’s major carrier, Medview Airline said that it failed to airlift its Lagos-London passengers yesterday because of suspension of service of its handling company at Gatwick Airport, Lagos.
The airline said that it suspected sabotage by the handling company and concerned authorities at Gatwick who without proper notification suspended service to the Nigerian carrier.
We wish to inform our numerous passengers who were scheduled to travel on our flight in and out of London and Lagos today 26 Jan on the fact of the situation.
In a statement signed by Executive Director, Business Development and Commercial, Medview Airline, Isiaq Na-Allah, and made available to THISDAY, the operator said after the departure of our flight from Lagos to London on Wednesday 24 Jan, we were informally informed by our handling agent that they will not be providing services to our aircraft. We immediately sought intervention of the Gatwick Authority which is expected to be unbiased but joined the fray surprisingly. Not wanting to take chances, we sought for alternative handling arrangements to avert an ugly situation but this proved abortive.”
The airline said its passengers who were scheduled to come to Lagos on the service were therefore denied boarding and “we had to provide accommodations and logistics for them with the hope that we will clear the issue the next day and then operate the service.”
Medview further explained that its European partner, EAA came and intervened but this also proved abortive.
“This we view strongly as unethical and draws a suspicious motive. In order to avoid more embarrassing situations we protected these passengers on other alternative carriers to Lagos. We strongly regret this situation.
“As it became evident that our airplane will not be allowed to come and position to Lagos for our next rotation to London, we had no choice other than to cancel our London service today, Friday 26 Jan. This we effectively communicated to our passengers and protected them on other carriers. While some accepted the offer, some rejected insisting they want a particular carrier. We are presently working to resolve with these passengers,” the airline said.
However, informed source at the airport said Medview is finding it increasingly difficult to operate its Dubai and London flights as hundreds of passengers destined to Dubai and London waited for hours on Thursday and Friday due to inadequate equipment.
Reacting to the development, an industry observer told THISDAY that many international airlines that operate to Nigeria don’t always want indigenous carriers to compete with them and they do everything possible to frustrate them.
“The Nigerian government should understand this is aero politics, which is aimed at making sure that Nigerian airlines do not operate successfully to international destinations. What government should adopt is the policy of reciprocity. When you frustrate us; we frustrate you. It is the duty of our government to protect our airlines. Other countries protect their own; they should protect ours,” the source said.
