British airways has confirmed that flights to Nigeria have resumed after a worldwide systems collapse led to cancellations of several flights around the world. The system crashed affected flight plans across the world and is thought to have cost the airline hundred’s of millions of pounds.
British Airways has responded quite quickly to the debacle and explained that they have or are planning to put in place the following measures to cushion the disruption in service:
- The airline would be willing to refund passengers who would want to terminate their scheduled flights.
- The airline is in touch with passengers to keep them informed of the latest developments as they unfold.
- Heathrow airport has continued to provide stranded passengers water and snacks.
- The airline has asked customers to follow its websites and twitter handle for updates about flight schedules.
While British Airways, has kept customers informed through calls, sms and other communication platforms, Nigerian airlines do not bother doing same. Email and sms notifications of flight cancellation or changes are often absent. Where they are sent, it is too late to make a change. Sometimes these notifications are not sent, despite charging customers for them. Many Nigerian airlines, use their social media handles to push promotions, often ignoring complaints from customers. In some cases, the handles are not active.
BA has also catered to passengers who are stranded at its Heathrow and Gatwick terminals by providing water and snacks. Nigerian airlines do not offer such customer care. Airline staff pack up their equipment and close their counters. This leads to passengers attacking them, as was witnessed recently with Air Peace.
BA has freely offered refunds to customers who would want to terminate their scheduled flights. Nigerian airlines prefer charging a fee for this, even when the cause of the cancellation is from their end. Sometimes refunds take a day or two to process, making passengers have to spend additional money to book another flight immediately.
BA has also given customers the option of re routing their flights. Nigerian airlines do not have such services, preferring to cancel the flight .
British Airways was established in 1974, and is the largest airline by fleet size. The airline yesterday cancelled all flights from its Heathrow and Gatwick bases as a result of an IT glitch. The company made revenues of £11.2 billion in 2015.
What happened to you nairametric, are you in recession ?Dear onome you maybe right but the truth is that britsh airways did had a monopoly on certain desitination london have two airport or three now or four now. the 2 main airport serving London the cormercial and political capital is hethrow and Gatwick,.british airway have no competition from any british airline for many years.THEY SECURED VIABLE AND PROFITABLE OTHER DESTINATION.NO OTHER BRITISH AILINE CAN OPERATE FROM HETHROW,if you try the govt will block other airline.if you want to fly to new York that is not british airways,you better use Manchester or Gatwick.
Teathrow have almost everything underground connection serving a 7 million british people.there is a call to expand the present hetrothrow with another runway .now we sees the problem that is facing us Nigerians.we borrows idea from others foreigner,and we never asks can it works in nigeria WE FORGETS WHO WE ARE.THAT EACH PERSON IS UNIQUE AND DIFFERENT FROM ANOTHER.this is what facing us for 30 yrs in nigeria
To whom it may concern
I booked and paid for a two way ticket online on the 25th march 2017 for
two passengers from lagos to portharcourt for 13th april 2017 to return on
the 16th april, 2017, five (5) days later i got an sms that the flight
going to portharcourt on the 13th april has been cancelled due to
operational reason, immediately i sent a mail to their admin for refund and
they requested for the transaction details and they acknowledged that the
refund is been processed and that the refund will take 3-6 weeks.
Then i decided to visit their office on opebi road to express my feelings
and the inconveniences they’ve caused me, getting there i was told by the
staff who attended to me that the return flight has also been cancelled
which i didn’t get any notification as to that effect, then the staff
initiated the refund for that as well and informed me that i will get the
refund in 3-6 weeks from that day and the staffs were boosting that their
refund policy is clearly stated on their website to refund within 3-6
weeks. so i patiently waited for the refund but as i speak, i haven’t got
any refund or information from the organisation.
After i left their office that day, i decided to find out reasons why the
flights were cancelled only to discovered that First Nation have not been
flying to portharcourt in a while and they kept their online portal active
to scam and take people money and afterward send messages that the flight
has been cancelled.
*This is absolutely a fraudulence act, total corruption, we cannot allow
this to continue in our society*
Please am crying out to the appointed government bodies to look into this
deeply as soon as possible.
Warm regards
Sesan Jigan