Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has condemned the recent trend of violent attacks on airline workers and their facilities at the various airports by some unruly passengers over flight delays or cancellation.
The association’s President, Alhaji Abdulmunaf Yunusa, condemned the attack in a statement issued in Lagos on Saturday.
The association issued the statement following a recent video of an attack on staff of Arik Air over flight delays or cancellation and many other such incidents that have happened within the month.
Yunusa disclosed that the association was concerned that those violent attacks had gone on unrestrained across major airports across the country and therefore, strongly, and without equivocation, condemned them and call for immediate cessation.
The president said they felt the pains and frustrations of travellers over delayed or cancelled flights due to the disruptions such bring to their plans.
He, however, remind the travelling public that no airline operator deliberately delays or cancels flights because the aircraft was meant to be in the air and not on ground.
Yunusa disclosed that aircraft on ground, which was a huge loss to operators and impacts negatively on the economy of their dear country, was, however, mostly, for safety and so many reasons outside the control of operators.
According to him, For this reason, AON has been at the front of seeking more effective ways to mitigate factors that cause flight delays and huge economic losses to the country.
He said: “However, we believe that the trend of violent attacks on airline staff and facilities has to stop.
“There have been instances where airline staff have been physically injured by passengers. Airline property running into millions of naira has also been destroyed by passengers.
“Those airline staff and facilities are not cause of flight delays. They are also human beings, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters etc., working to earn a living and put food on the table for their families.
“Violent attacks on airline staff occasioning physical harm, is not a civilised and matured way for passengers to register their disappointments over flight delays or cancellations.
“There are better ways to do this which are also spelt out by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in its manuals. Passengers can also pursue their rights through the Consumer Protection Council.”
Yunusa disclosed ghat they were also worried that those violent attacks and destruction of property at their airports go a long way to cause disruption of operations, insinuate lack of adequate security at the airports and further impugn the image of their dear country.
He, therefore, uses that medium to call on the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to improve security across the airports especially as it relates to security of airline staff and property.
Yunusa said AON would no longer sit back and watch those violent attacks go on unrestrained, adding that passengers ought also to be informed that airline staff had the rights and could use available legal means to enforce those rights and seek redress.
He said going forward, their members might have to explore this option as no one was permitted, by law, to take laws into their hands, therefore calling for immediate end this trend.
Yunusa restated the commitment of their members to do all that was humanly possible to minimize incidences of flight delays and cancellations.
He urged them to also remain focused on on-time flight operations and strongly condemn further violent attacks on airline staff and facilities.
