Inside Lagos airports where racketeering threatens passenger safety

From ticket racketeering to sale of fake yellow cards, Nigerian airports have become ideal places for all forms of illegal business. These illegitimate businesses have continued to thrive at airports despite measures put together by airlines and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to address them.

Ticket racketeering

Ticket racketeering has become a growing trend in Nigeria’s aviation industry.

Last year, Turkish Airlines said it dismissed seven Nigerian staff because they violated various ticketing reservation rules that cost the airline over $600,000.

A statement by the Turkish airline said, “Upon discovering the violations, the airline immediately engaged the Union in various discussions on how to address the said violations.

“Specifically, the Union was invited and acted as a member of the disciplinary committee against the erring employees, where it was determined, after the presentation of irrefutable evidence detailing the employees’ wrongdoings, that the employees were liable for gross misconduct and ought to be dismissed.”

At domestic airport terminals, airlines’ staff and touts have continued to make money off the plane shortages experienced at airports, BusinessDay’s findings have revealed.

According to findings, tickets of passengers unable to board are resold to highest bidders at terminals during flight departures.

Secondly, staff of airlines block seats on their websites, preventing passengers from making bookings. These unscrupulous staff, in turn, sell the tickets at higher rates at airport terminals.

Moreover, touts buy tickets from airlines only to resell at higher rates to desperate passengers, using fake ID cards to perpetrate their illegalities.

Susan Akporaiye, managing director and CEO, Topaz Travels and Tours, said ticket racketeering could be in different forms, noting that it is common at local airlines.

The former president of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) further said that unscrupulous staff hack into airlines’ websites and issue tickets, noting that the money does not go into airlines’ coffers.

Akporaiye said that there are allegations that some staff deliberately block seats so as to resell them to desperate passengers.

“A client of mine told me that she needed to be in Lagos and the flight time was moved. Incidentally, she was informed of this at the airport. With this development, there was no way she could meet the event she was going for. She tried to get another airline but could not.

“Someone approached her and told her he could give her a ticket and that some seats were cancelled,” she explained.

Yellow cards

Passengers travelling to African destinations have to visit the Port Health Services at the toll gate close to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, to obtain yellow fever vaccination cards. The yellow card is an essential travel document within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region. However, more often than not, yellow card applicants are told that the cards have been exhausted.

The passengers are given forms endorsed by the Port Health Services to fill after they have received vaccines. These forms serve as an alternative to the digital yellow cards.

Despite this provision, the sale of fake yellow cards has continued at Lagos international airport. Passengers have complained in recent times that when the forms are presented to the staff, they still demand for yellow cards.

Chijioke Nnamani, a passenger travelling to Senegal, shared his experience with BusinessDay.

“Despite the form provided by Port Health Services, the airline staff made me believe that the form might not be accepted at the port of arrival. Worried and confused, the staff quickly recommended that a card be given to me if I was interested.

“I told them I had already received the vaccine and didn’t need another. I was told no other vaccine would be given to me; just the card,” Nnamani said.

Nnamani said he was asked to pay N15, 000 for the card.

The following day, he entered Blaise Diagne International Airport but somehow was not comfortable presenting the card and decided to show the form he obtained from Port Health Services.

He said the form was accepted and he was allowed into the country.

Read also: Airlines’ staff, touts cash in on plane shortage

Undeclared luggage

Undeclared luggage is a recent trend that has become a threat to safety.

Domestic airlines have been increasingly getting passengers to pay for their luggage in a bid to raise extra cash to offset high jet fuel costs in Africa’s most populous nation.

BusinessDay’s investigations show that some staff are now conniving with passengers to declare false luggage volumes. Money exchanges hands during the process.

Allen Onyema, chairman and founder of Air Peace, said at a recent stakeholders’ meeting that airlines’ staff now connive with passengers to under-declare luggage in exchange for money.

Onyema said the troubling trend could lead to air accidents because the pilot would think the aircraft is carrying a normal load factor, not knowing the aircraft is overloaded. This, he said, could impact passenger safety.

The cargo load factor (CLF) measures how efficiently an airline utilises its capacity, calculated by dividing the total cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs) by the available cargo tonne-kilometers.

Airlines use CLFs to assess the efficiency of their cargo operations and identify areas for improvement.

With the new trend, airlines are unable to assess efficiency of their cargo operations.

Harassments

Right from the security checkpoints at the entrance of the airport, officials give passengers the impression that they are potential criminals with questions like, ‘Where are you going to?’ ‘What are you travelling for?’ ‘What is inside your bag?’ Passengers have raised concerns that these questions are only asked at Nigerian airports or when they are suspected to carry contrabands. Some passengers are quick to grease the palms of officials to avoid further scrutiny.

Customs and staff of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) do their random checks and profiling of passengers. However, in some cases, once passengers become generous by giving these officials money, their security checks are faster and sometimes waived.