The Daily Travails of Air Travel Consumers
Margaret’s Experience:
“I boarded Arik Airline from Lagos to Calabar on the 4th of September after my trip from London via Dubai. My flight was W3 505 Economy-class, time was 13:40pm and my seat no was 16B. I checked in 4 pieces of luggage and I was asked to pay N10,030. 00 for 59kg excess which I did. As I was about to step onto the aircraft I was asked to identify my luggage before they were loaded onboard the plane. That was when I noticed that one of my cargo boxes was neatly torn open! I raised an alarm but none of the Arik staff at the foot of the aircraft gave me attention until I held on to one of them. He then pointed to the manager who was also there but pretended he did not hear my loud cries of my torn cargo bag. At this point, it started raining.
As I started to check through my things, he (the Manager) asked me to please get on board and make my reports of missing items to the manager in Calabar since I was the only passenger left on ground. I asked them to please use a cello tape to seal the torn bag but one of them asked me to give money to buy one! I yelled at them in anger before another brought out a cello tape from his pocket and taped the cargo box.
On arrival in Calabar, I discovered some items were missing and promptly alerted the airline’s manager at Calabar, where someone muttered, “these Lagos people are fond of cutting and stealing from passengers bags! “ He asked me to write the items missing and he photocopied my boarding pass and the excess luggage receipts. The missing items were 4 DKNY Perfumes valued at 27 pounds each; 2 packet shirts valued at 8 pounds each; 1 cargo box which was torn open with a value of 12 pounds, 1 Estee Lauder Pleasures perfume valued at $51. I bought the perfume at Dubai during my 2 hours stop-over from London.
I even contacted Senator Anietie Okon when I learnt he was the Vice Chairman of the airline. He promised Arik will pay for all stolen items, but I am yet to hear from him again, despite many text messages.
On efforts at following up on the manager in Calabar, I was shocked when he told me that the Manager in Lagos said I had checked all my things and all were complete! At this point, I wondered if this Lagos Manager could be the one paying those boys to steal for him from his attitude when I raised the alarm and this blatant lie to the Calabar Manager!
Since no one in Arik has deemed it fit to resolve my complaint, I have decided to make it public because I am ready to go to any length to put a stop to this fraudulent practice at our airports and airlines especially as I had once experienced a similar situation in the hands of Arik airlines. Please tell Arik to return the missing items in my luggage. Thanks, Margaret U.”
My Comments:
Margaret’s story is probably not new to many reading this article. In spite of all the efforts successive governments claim to have made to make our airports safe for life and property (not to talk of efficient and customer friendly), stories like this are the stuff office gist and friendly chit chat are made off. Like so many other sectors, the aviation industry is struggling to stay alive (a la the Bee Gees’ song “Staying Alive”). I read early this week that the industry players are gearing up to go cap-in-hand to meet the President for their portion of the national bailout potluck.
If asked, industry experts will most likely give a list of critical factors needed to sustain the industry and I can bet my bottom naira that service integrity will probably not make the top ten. Yet it is stories like Margaret’s that make undying cynics of the Nigerian consumer about the expediency of air travel in the Nigerian airspace.
The nonchalance of the Arik crew even up to a supposed board member screams of gross insensitivity to the consumer’s rights in a trade contract. By agreeing to carry the consumer and her luggage, even charging excess for extra bags, Arik entered into a contract to protect her and her bags from Lagos to Calabar. To imagine that even before the bags left Lagos, Arik had failed in its commitment to protect her property should be actionable in any society that values justice and fair play. Sadly, Nigeria has not displayed such social conscience.
One wonders what FAAN’s responsibility is in this scenario as the national airports custodian. Does FAAN hire inspectors to monitor the practices of its airline customers and ensure they comply with international standards? Or is this kind of practice not inimical to its self declared vision statement “to be amongst the best airport groups in the world?”
Incidentally, the month of October has some somber history for the aviation industry. Two of the six worst air crashes our nation has experienced in the last two decades happened in October; the Bellview air crash that killed 117 passengers on October 23, 2005 and the ADC Airlines crash in Abuja on October 29, 2006 which killed the then Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Maccido and his son. Thankfully, we have been spared another aviation tragedy in commercial travel to date and we pray it stays that way forever.
However, while safety issues might have improved, other indices to earn Nigerian air travel global standard status are all going south. I have been polling consumers on their top five concerns in aviation services and the consensus was flight delays, lost baggage, touts, fraudulent price gimmicks and appalling customer service. While safety and security featured, they didn’t make the top five.
I have heard tales of woe especially about foreign airlines who change the rules of baggage allowance arbitrarily on departure date even though that was not the terms of contract when leaving Nigeria. (My sister had to repack 8 bags at Heathrow with 3 children because Qatar airlines decided that their baggage allowance had reduced from 25kg on the outward journey to 20kg on the return leg. And no one thought it fit to inform them before departure date.)
Then there are the many promotions going on online for juicy deals on local routes if you book ahead and pay online. Good stuff, the only snag is that many of the payment processes just don’t work. One consumer told me he spent the whole day trying to pay online but the system wouldn’t work. He now decided to go to the Dana Air office only to be told he had to pay full fair though his booking was online! Was it his fault that the system wouldn’t take his money? I got quite a number of these kinds of complaints. Enough to wonder if the “promos” are really in good faith or just a bait to attract consumers to their airline before “hitting” them.
Due to these and many more concerns, the next Lagos Consumer Forum will focus on issues of consumer rights and protection in the aviation industry. The Director, Consumer Protection Unit of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Adamu Abdullahi will be speaking on Consumer Rights in Aviation Services. Industry experts and consultants including Captain Dele Ore will be on the panel to deal with issues and consumer complaints. Our legal support team would be there too in case a consumer’s experience is adjudged actionable.
For those who do not know, the Lagos Consumer Forum is an initiative of Consumer Advocacy Forum in conjunction with Lagos Television and supported by Fenway Couriers, BusinessDay Newspapers, National Association of Seadogs (NAS) and Purrples Consult Limited. The October edition will hold on Tuesday October 27, 2009 at 11 am on the premises of Lagos Television, Lateef Jakande Road Agidingbi Ikeja. It is a public forum so all are invited, especially if you have any customer service issue that has to do with the aviation industry. If you can’t get away from your job, then tune in to LTV same time as the forum will be broadcast live.
Breaking News:
Consequent upon last month’s forum on banking services, a Federal High Court in Lagos on October 15, granted leave to one of CAFON’s partner attorneys, Tochukwu Onyiuke of Punaka Attorneys and Solicitors to file a CLASS ACTION suit on behalf of all victims of ATM Frauds against the banks! As far as I know, this is the first time in Nigeria that consumers have been granted leave to file a class action against service providers so it is a monumental achievement.
While we await the amendment to the Consumer Protection Act to include a clause in Product Liability, actions like this will engage the service providers and ensure that they exercise world standard due diligence in providing services. I will keep you posted on the next move as it will definitely be a long drawn case. We are getting closer to our dream of responsible and considerate service delivery.
