BA to assist Medview with passengers’ left over baggage

Nigeria’s flag carrier airline, Medview today held an interactive session with some of its passengers whose checked-in luggage were to  arrive the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos from Gatwick Airport, London.

Addressing the passengers at the airline’s headquarters at in Lagos, the Managing Director of the airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole attributed the recent crisis in arrival of passengers’ luggage to the closure of the major runway in Gatwick for rehabilitation and the refusal of the ground staff in London to resume for duty during the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays.

Bankole explained that the airline had done everything humanly possible for the luggage to arrive as planned and assured the angry passengers that their checked-in luggage would arrive latest by this weekend.

He explained that British Airways has offered to return some of the delayed luggage by this Friday and Saturday and expressed optimism that all the issues would be resolved by this weekend.

He expressed regret for the inconvenience the passengers may have gone through in the past five days, but assured that all the affected passengers would be adequately compensated.

Bankole also offered to lodge some of the affected passengers in a hotel within the state while he also issued free return tickets to those still travelling outside the state.

He explained that as one of the leading carriers in Nigeria, the airline would always take the safety and security of its passengers with high priority, stressing that it would always play according to the international best practises.

However, some of the affected passengers had earlier threatened to sue the airline, but the quick intervention of Bankole led to the resolve of the issue amicably.

Bankole said: “The British authorities closed the major runway for rehabilitation and only the emergency runway was opened for landing and taking off of aircraft. The closure of the lengthy runway was a major disaster for us because we were never aware of such closure until we got there.

“Also, the support staff in London refusd to work during the holidays, claiming that as a public holiday, they were not mandated to work during the period. But, as we are talking now, we have made arrangement with British Airways to bring the luggage of affected staff in two batches. The first batch would arrive on Friday while the second batch will also arrive the country on Sunday through British Airways. On our own part, we will bring the remaining luggage on Saturday.”