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Arik charters aircraft to airlift stranded US passengers
Arik Air said it has chartered a B767-300ER aircraft from a European charter operator to minimize the disruption and inconvenience to booked passengers on its Lagos-New York JFK service as the airline airplane was dispatched to airlift stranded US, Johannesburg passengers.
The airline in a statement by its spokesman, Banji Ola said due to the damage to Arik Air’s A330-200 aircraft (registration 5N-JIC) by a ground handling company at JFK International Airport, New York, USA a few days ago, the airline had to invest in chartering.
This arrangement, he said was put in place to cover for the period until the return to service of our A330-200 aircraft on December 28, 2016.
Ola stated that the Lagos-New York flight which was scheduled to be operated by the charter company and depart Lagos on Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 11:00am could not operate due to the closure of Lagos airspace for several hours due to bad weather (poor visibility). Despite the airline’s repeated appeals to the charter operator to operate the next fight, they insisted on positioning their crew and aircraft back to Europe on Wednesday, December 28, 2016.
He explained that Arik Air immediately commenced the ferry back of its A330-200 aircraft from New York to Lagos today, adding that the aircraft is expected to arrive Lagos today at 02:45am.
“Passengers originally booked on Arik Air’s flight W3 107 on Tuesday, 27 December 2016 from Lagos to New York JFK will now be accommodated to travel on Thursday, December 29, 2016 at 06:00am.”
He further stated that while these negotiations were on with the charter operator, Arik Air was reviewing available alternate options, but unfortunatelysome of the New York bound passengers yesterday prevented the airline from checking in passengers booked for other destinations resulting in significant delays and cancellations of some flights.
His words, “These passengers also delayed the check-in of Lagos-London Heathrow flight of Wednesday, despite making them aware that London Heathrow airport enforces a night curfew and the consequential impact on other passengers of such unlawful disruptions.
“No assistance was available from the Aviation Security (AVSEC) department of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to contain the disruptive passengers and ensure they act in an orderly and civilized manner.”
The carrier however appealed for the understanding of passengers booked on the Lagos-New York service and assured regular operations will be normalised from today.
