From December 16, Turkish Airlines would no longer convey passengers into Nigeria as the Federal Government has suspended its operations, till the airline use the right size of aircraft. The directive was given through the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Reasons given: The international carrier was reportedly suspended due to repeated cases of poor passenger treatment. The NCAA directed the airline to suspend its operations until it was ready to operate with the right size of aircraft that could transport all passengers with their baggage at the same time.
This action by the Federal Government is coming at a time when there have been cases of the airline failing to bring passengers into Nigeria together with their checked-in baggage due to the size of the aircraft.
According to a letter by the acting Director-General, NCAA, Capt. Abdullahi Sidi, the authority was unhappy with the incidents that kept reoccurring over the past two weeks.
The letter stated that the incidents were so bad and common to the extent that the airline brought in passengers without more than 85% of passengers’ baggage on board.
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Sidi’s words: “Our airport authority has been facing serious crisis controlling the passengers at the airport whenever they arrive without their baggage. This issue has made passengers to carry out several mob actions at our airports and it is a great threat to our airport facilities.
“In view of all these, and a series of meetings held with the Turkish Airlines personnel, which did not yield any solution to this problem, the NCAA is therefore left with no option than to direct Turkish Airlines to suspend its operations into Nigeria until such a time when the airline is ready to operate with the right size of aircraft that can transport all passengers with their baggage at the same time.
“If no remedial action is carried out by your airline, this suspension shall be effective from the 16th of December, 2019.”