Flight delays/cancellations: BASL COO, Odukoya defends airlines, makes case for passengers

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Bi-Courtney Aviation, Mrs. Tosan Duncan Odukoya, has joined her voice with other experts in the industry to correct the impression by air travellers that airlines are always to be blamed for flight disruptions arising from delays and cancellations.

Odukoya stated that the paramount factor in flight operations is safety, hence airlines for safety must delay or cancel flights when the need arises.

She also argued that it is unfair to describe a passenger as unruly, saying that no air traveller leaves home with the mindset of becoming unruly at the terminal.

Odukoya who was speaking in an exclusive interview with Justnet News recently, said in all, BASL works with the airlines and other stakeholders to ensure a passenger is not pushed to the point he becomes unruly.

Hence, BASL is proactive, not reactive ensuring frustration and fracas do not arise at the terminal.

She noted that the natural factor of weather and circumstances that lead to the skies being shut could cause delays and cancellations.

The COO said: “Remember that we are dealing with weather, we are dealing with systems where the skies could be shut for one reason or another, and it’s not just the airline’s fault; very unfair for us to think that way.

“We must think safety, we must think security, we must think customer service when it comes to these things, it is not always the airline that is at fault, no. There are other factors so we need to be able to categorise what sort of a delay it is; is it a creeping delay, is it a sudden delay, is it something that’s going to be a night stop or are we talking of over two hours, over four hours, there are different categories.”

However, she said that BASL has put a system in place to avoid fracas arising from delays and cancellations, noting that no passenger leaves his or her home with the intention of being unruly.

Her words: “It’s not fair to say they (passengers) are unruly, let’s be realistic. You know me and my passengers; my passengers cannot do any bad in my eyes but at the same time when you lead and there’s a situation that leads to what I call frustration and fracas, when there is a situation where they (the passengers) are not being communicated with properly, where there’s a situation where they are not being updated properly or a situation where they feel neglected; listen to no passenger wants to get into an airplane that’s not safe or go to a destination that is not safe. Do you understand? So every passenger I’ve always said is reasonable to a point.

“So what are we doing to de-escalate situations, what are we doing to manage conflict, what are we doing to negotiate, what are we doing to give them communication and a heads up? That is what we have to ask ourselves

“We said to ourselves; what are we doing about ensuring that the customer does not get to a point where he becomes unruly? Nobody gets up from their house, leaves their house, or comes here to become unruly.

“We saw on the international scene just a few days ago with a sporting situation with football where the President of the whole football federation got onto the tarmac, I call it tarmac because I’m a tarmac person, he got out to the football pitch and some fracas occurred. When he was interviewed he said I never went onto that football pitch to slap the referee. Can you imagine?

“That was something that helped me to understand where we are when it comes to how we are dealing with the situation that leads up to making a passenger unruly; that’s where we have to step in instead of trying to be reactive. Let us be proactive, that’s what we’ve got to do. So we’re doing a lot.”

Continuing, the BASL COO described the terminal as the finest in hospitality, not condoning or giving room to any form of insecurity but focused on the wellbeing of the passengers.

“Now, we also call ourselves more than a terminal, and then now we call ourselves the finest in airport hospitality. And that is because we move in this terminal away from being just a process flow. We are moving it to a point where we are a lifestyle. We are an ecosystem, we are a customer experience place. So we have an art gallery.

“MMA2 is also what we call a lifestyle ecosystem whereby we are enjoying the customer’s well-being. We have a 24-hour medical facility that is fantastic. They are paramedics. They are not just normal clinics or anything. They are paramedics. They are quick to go. They have their backpacks. They look fantastic.

“We love them a lot, but then they specialise in this kind of thing; first aid; ‘I’m going, am I really okay? Is my blood pressure fine?’ So we do a lot when it comes to making sure that all our people, terminal users, travellers, everybody is running like an ecosystem,” she explained.

She added that MMA2 is equipped and ready for regional flight operations, therefore, it should be given the nod and tested by the authorities

Wole Shadare