Turkish Airlines has been suspended from operating in Nigeria, due to what the Federal Government labelled as poor treatment of passengers.
The directive was contained in a letter addressed to the airline by the acting Director-General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Abdullahi Sidi and made available to reporters on Thursday by the Federal Ministry of Aviation.
According to NCAA, the directive is necessary as some airlines have consistently failed to bring passengers into Nigeria together with their checked-in baggage, accounting for 85% of flight from Turkey to Nigeria. The situation has lead to security breaches in many instances in 2 weeks.
The letter read: “Our airport authority had been facing serious crises controlling the passengers at the airport whenever they arrived without their baggage.
“This issue had made passengers carry out several mob actions at our airport and it was a great threat to our airport facilities.”
The NCAA ordered the airline to suspend its operations from 16 December until it is ready to operate with a large aircraft which can accommodate the luggage of its passengers arriving in Nigeria.
“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,”.
(C) Control TV 2019.
