Air Meridien abandons 40 passengers over overbooking

No fewer than 40 passengers of an Italian airline, Air Meridien were yesterday abandoned at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos by the airline.
The passengers comprising males, females, children and minors were prevented from checking in by the airline ground staff, probably because of over-booking.
But, the ground staff of the airline refused to communicate with the passengers on why they were not airlifted by the airline.
Some of the passengers had come from Edo, Delta, Abia, Anabra States and others with the hope of catching flight to Milan, the airline’s base on Tuesday, but were disappointed for being left behind by the airline.
A source close to the terminal alleged that the flight was over-booked and the profilers seized the opportunity to collect some tips from some of the passengers in order to be checked and fly with the flight.
Justina Eghaghe Otaniyen, one of the affected passengers, from Benin Edo State, lamented that she arrived the airport as early as 12 for the 2:40pm flight to Milan, but was not airlifted by the airline despite arriving early.
According to her, when the affected passengers visited the Consumer Protection Department (CPD) of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to lodge their complaints, the affected passengers were directed to send an email message to the airline for rebook and missed of flight.
After the email messages, she claimed that NCAA officials at the airport informed them that they would only be airlifted on the 31st March, 2017, stressing that no arrangement was made for them by the airline.
Air Meridien operates into Lagos twice weekly; Tuesdays and Thursdays.
When our correspondent visited the terminal, the airline’s counters were closed.
Otaniyen said: I arrived here at 12:21pm for a 2:40pm flight. As at the time I got here, the passengers were still being checked-in, but all of a sudden, the airline stopped checking us in and refused to collect our luggage. But, an official of the airline later allowed some of the passengers to check in even those that came after us.
“I leave in Benin and I’ve been in Lagos since Monday; I even paid for hotel accommodation, but now, I don’t have anywhere else to go. As I am talking to you now, the airline has closed its counters. We immediately went to the CPD of NCAA who directed us to send the airline an email stating that we missed our flights even when we didn’t.”