Editor's Quote: "The test of democracy is freedom of criticism". D. Ben-Gurion
YOUR NEWS: "A Warning About Arik Airlines"
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Submitted by YOUR NEWS on Wed, 05/01/2011 - 5:05pm
Having witnessed several ugly incidents in the past weeks, involving the outright neglect of passengers by Nigeria’s Arik Airlines, I feel the need to warn travellers worldwide, to avoid them until a genuine change in their attitude toward customers is seen.
I am a regular traveller and was in Lagos, Nigeria for a conference on Monday, 4th January 2011.
Scheduled to travel back to London on the morning of Wednesday, 6th January, I arrived at Nigeria’s Murtala Mohammed Airport and ran into a group of almost 200 passengers looking irritated, agitated and unkempt.
With a few hours to spare, I decided to find out what was going on.
I was shocked to learn that the passengers were due to leave the night before with Arik to Johannesburg, South Africa, but had been kept in the airport for the duration of the entire night. No hotel arrangements were made nor was food or beverages provided.
The passengers received no explanation for the massive delay, nor were they accorded any apology or respite.
Most of the passengers, who were apparently returning from a church retreat, slept a minimal amount of hours on the uncomfortable airport chairs.
The flight eventually left in the early hours of the afternoon, the airline surreptitiously and unrepentantly citing lack of fuel as the cause, when I made my own enquiries.
This experience simply echoed that of my business colleague barely a week earlier.
Travelling with Arik for the first time on the same route, from Johannesburg to Lagos, he arrived to discover that the airline had offloaded approximately 180 passenger bags without any meaningful explanation.
Apparently they had heavily overbooked the flight and decided to cover their error at the expense of their customer’s baggage.
His scheduled meeting was delayed for over 48 hours as the bags, which were supposed to arrive the following morning, only reached Lagos late in the evening with a nearly 10 hour delay.
Again, no respite or restitution was offered for the gross inconvenience. My friend’s vehement complaints were met with such appalling cynicism and lack of respect that he solemnly vowed to me he would never use the carrier again.
I have just one experience flying with Arik, and sadly my prognosis matchesthat of my friend.
In my case, flying to J.F.K, again from Lagos, I found my flight was delayed for nearly eight hours, causing me to miss my connecting flight.
When I demanded clarification from their office, I was met with the bizarre excuse that the pilot was down with malaria and they struggled to find a last minute replacement.
I was forced to cancel a meeting that day, and waited over 12 hours for the next available flight. No respite or refund was offered to me in the form of a hotel room or some refreshments.
In the light of the above, I feel compelled to warn passengers to avoid using the services of Arik Airlines.
Maybe if their passenger in take decreases, they will be forced to pay more attention to customer service and improve their abysmal record.
I hold nothing personal against the staff and management of Arik, but believe something must be done immediately to restore their dwindling reputation; most especially in the areas of customer service and punctuality.
A brief online search revealed scores of similar complaints from disgruntled Arik customers.
If they can’t take care of the needs of their passengers, even when unpredictable circumstances arise, they should not be surprised if passengers stop using their services.
Comments
#1 LET'S APPRECIATE S A AIRWAYS
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 20/02/2012 - 12:56pm.
In fact, I really get disturbed when I heard about the performance of Arik airways managments.. why is it that whatever belongs to Nigerians is not worth impressive?. I'm from Nigeria though but I always like how South Africans manage their things. Maybe we should say, we have lack of good leadership..
In 15th of Nov. 2011, I was supposed to be uplifted to Johannesburg with S A Airways but unfortunately for us, We couldn't continue the trip consequently the Aircraft had a technical fault. Amazingly, after we were kept waiting for 3hours for the error in the Aircraft to be rectified and it couldn't be worked out.. S A Airways managments appologised to us for the delay and gave us proper treatment: we were taken to different luxury hotels with provision of good meals for the period of delay such as; Eko hotel, White house hotel, Heritage hotels and so on.
After 38hours of delay, S A airways provided us an expensive compensation to each passenger i.e a letter of apology with a 50% discount off a future flight we may take with them to any destination in the world for the period of 1year... Imagin this offer!!!!
now when they talk of Arik airways they disrespect their customers, why is this happening to Nigerian nation?????
Again, I want to comment of Nigerian Immigration Service at muritala interntional Airports. Nigeria immigration stop robing the first travellers!!!! you collect all their BTA consequently they dont have enough money that they are suppose to travel with. Are you the one going to face the challenges they would have in their destination!!!! In fact, nigeria is not worth of being an independent nation at all!!!!!!
#2 you may be correct in respect
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/12/2011 - 12:40pm.
you may be correct in respect to yr experience but have you travelled south african airways to lagos??? Poor poor service. I think Arik compares favourably with most airlines apart from emirate and qatar. what i read here is sentiments against nigeria as usual
#3 Without explanations!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 09/09/2011 - 11:48am.
Without explanations!
#4 Re: Arik Airlines
Submitted by Aniekan (not verified) on Thu, 16/06/2011 - 6:07pm.
Arik Airlines is a business owned and managed by Nigerians - so what did you honestly expect? Arik has even managed to give you an alternative airline that flies you locally, and internationally, and you are complaining. It just shows that there is no Consumer Protection Agency to set minimum standards/benchmarks for service level efficiency on behalf of the public. I bet my life that even if there was such an agency, the rules will never be followed - not in this lifetime at least! Is it not our Nigerian educational structures that produced those same managers? Why then, are you surprised or angered by the shabby treatment you get from them? They were simply not taught what good customer relations entail, so live with it or better still, float your own airline.
#5 Re: Awarning about Arik
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 08/06/2011 - 4:51pm.
Will you have preferred to fly with a pilot that have malaria, that wait for a replacement?
Will have preferred them to fly on empty tank?
I fly arik and on each ocassion my flight is delayed, i don't have reason to regret, because it is always for my own safety.
During easter period, my flight from lagos to enugu was delay for 1hr and after 1hr and the issue could not be resolved they gave us another aircraft that will carry less passenger. I ended up going by 3pm flight and missed 1pm meeting, but I did not regret it, would I have preferred to fly a fault aircraft or stand up inside an aircraft, all these are unforeseen circumstances.
My flight bu Alitalia and emirate has been delayed due to safety reason, so should I stop using them. The era of aircraft fly when not in condition is over in Nigeria. let us build our nation and kill it.
My displeasure will be their attitude to passengers when flight is delayed.
#6 LET THEM CHANGE THERE WAY
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 15/04/2011 - 4:44pm.
Arik air line don`t keep to time, people should avoid them, they are not serious. they delayed my journey for about 12 hours on March 18TH 2011. LAG- FREETOWN-BANJUL- DK, they need to change their way.
#7 LET THEM CHANGE THERE WAY
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 15/04/2011 - 4:44pm.
Arik air line don`t keep to time, people should avoid them, they are not serious. they delayed my journey for about 12 hours on March 18TH 2011. LAG- FREETOWN-BANJUL- DK, they need to change their way.
#8 I had planned on using
Submitted by E. Akande (not verified) on Mon, 11/04/2011 - 7:25pm.
I had planned on using another airline to fly from JFK to Lagos, but the patriot in me and the gentle nodging of a coleague finally decided me to fly Arik. I was at the airport almost two hours before departure time, but was told I had come late and so must postpone my flight till another day. I was furious and desappointed all the same time to say the least.
I noticed some other persengers were being given boarding passes to board at this same time by Arik airline to go on this same flight and to the same lagos destination. Someone called me aside and told me that if the supervisor had given her accent to my boarding I would have been permitted to board. I refused to beg . Other airlines had empty seats to Lagos that night. I will never board Arik again or recommend it ever.
#9 have had severally experiences with arik
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 11/04/2011 - 3:34pm.
mine own case has to do with their local flights.....ave had 3different experience with arik phc-lag,phc-abj,lag-phc.arik doesnt eva keep to timing..from phc to lag,my flight was to depart by 2:50pm but we departed by 8:20pm that day without any reasonable reason.....same experiences with others too and i have vowed never to travel with arik anylonger unless they improve....
#10 Nothing good from Arik air
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 18/03/2011 - 9:27pm.
Arik air is amongst the worst airline if the worst ever, it is odd for a travel agent to advise their customers not to book arik air, if they do they should do that at their own risk, Nigeria should grow up and know how to manage customer services instead of making sveral excuses all the time they do things wrong
#11 Call the dog a bad name and hang it
Submitted by Segun (not verified) on Fri, 14/01/2011 - 4:45am.
I have travelled with Arik airlines several times and I think they can favourably compete with any airline in the world. I am very widely travelled - europe, amarica, Asia. The incidents you described are not peculiar to Arik. I the UK, you face worse situations. In the USA, the same. Stop this unnecessary blame game. You are all shouting blue murder because it is an African airline and a Nigerian airline at that. go to Europe and America and compare. Asian airlines are even worse. Please stop this smear campaign of everything Nigeria.
#12 arik air and their problems
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 18/03/2011 - 8:47pm.
I totally agreed that Arik is the worst airline in the planet earth, at present iam suing them for compensation, i and my family booked to Abuja in December last year, instead of taken us to abuja we were dump at lagos like a pice of trash. surely i will never use arik air ever again, and i have been telling practically anybody i know not to use them, even travel agents are telling their customers not to book arik air, if they do at their own risk. every decent nigerian should openly accept our pitfalls, point blank arik air sucks.
#13 I wonder why Segun thinks
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 16/03/2011 - 9:04am.
I wonder why Segun thinks that Arik air is smeared, afterall the writter didnt say things that were not true. I wonder when Nigerians will learn to see thier mistakes and correct them. Why will you be saying the writter is been critical bcus its a Nigerian airline? Its sad that after real evdiences like this someone will still come out to support the wrong. I have travelled by Arik and know that all the writter said was true, no false in it at all. And I think what we should be worried about now is the saftey of passengers on Arik planes now, not been angry because someone expressed the truth..
#14 "Let us call a spade a spade"
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 27/02/2011 - 5:13pm.
Oh because airlines abuses passengers all over the world does that makes it right for Arik to do the same? if you have any proof of other airline doing the same you should expose them not condone it, if by any chance you know those in charge of Arik pls tell them to improve their services.
#15 Same ol story
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 05/01/2011 - 6:03pm.
This has been the story for almost all of Nigeria's local airline companies for a while now! No surprise there! Its simply because they are broke!! Wonder what happened to that bailout for the airline industry the fed government was talking about..they've probably chopped that money by now. Plus these airlines have demand working in their favor!! So don't give them business tomorrow...wont make a difference!! Very sad.
#16 Safety???
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 05/01/2011 - 6:03pm.
I can only wonder... if their customers service is this poor, how poor is the engineering servicing of the planes???
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