Tough trips await Peter Obi for town hall meetings in Canada, 6 US cities

Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party for the 2023 general elections

Tough travel and looming flight delays may be awaiting Peter Obi, the Labour Party flag bearer for the forthcoming 2023 presidential election on his town hall meetings in Canada and six other cities in the United States of America, (USA).

Obi, who will arrive in Toronto, Canada on Sunday, August 28 is scheduled for a daily non-stop event till September 4, 2022.

United States cities he will be visiting from Canada are Los-Angeles; Houston Texas, Charlotte, North Carolina; Washington DC; Atlanta Georgia, and New York.

Experts say the flight schedules will be tough for the presidential aspirant, especially flights from Toronto Pearson Airport, which is currently tagged ‘Worst international airport for delays’ in a recent international ranking of major travel hubs.

According to data obtained by FlightAware on behalf of CNN, a little more than half of all scheduled flights from May 26 to July 19 — a massive 52.5 percent — were delayed.

Pearson has already cut 15 percent of scheduled flights in July and August as the airport continues to deal with staffing shortages, hoards of missing luggage, long lines and the revival of travel trends after two years of lockdowns.

According to Chuma Asuzu, a data analyst, based in Toronto: “This trip must be tough on him. The Toronto one is at an airport hotel, which makes sense because the next night he’s in LA. That’s a 7 hour flight.”

Related News

“Add immigration brouhaha to that, that’s painful.”

“Travelling out of Toronto now is a 2 hour queue, unless he’s flying private which is not his style.”

Also, U.S. airlines have in recent time canceled or delayed thousands of flights as a result of staffing shortages, which is becoming a global concern.

Obi who shared his trip plan on his verified Facebook page wrote, “En route to the U.S.A, I’ll make a pit stop in Germany to interact with Nigerians in Germany.”

“I hold Nigerians in Diaspora in very high esteem; they represent the core of our human development capital and contribute immensely to nation building via remittances and technical knowledge transfer.

“My present outing will take me to Germany, Italy, Canada & the U.S.A. I look forward to the very constructive engagements. #PeterObi

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.