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