No fewer than 4,126 sets of luggage belonging to passengers were either declared missing or delayed on arrival throughout the nation’s 26 airports in the month of September.
Within the same period, a total number of 1,331,766 air travellers passed through the domestic and international airports across the country.
A report obtained from the Consumer Protection Directorate (CPD) of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) by newsmen indicated that missing/delayed luggage was rampant among foreign airlines that operated into and out of the country within the month, while just a fraction of the local airlines had such challenge within the month.
According to the report, a total number of 4,097 passengers’ luggage were missing or delayed on arrival among the international carriers, while only 29 of such cases were recorded against the domestic carriers.
The report revealed that 3,810 of the missing/delayed luggage was later recovered among the foreign carriers, while the other 287 luggage was still missing as at the time of compiling this report.
The breakdown of the missing/delayed luggage indicated that Air France led the pack with a total number of 524 missing/delayed luggage, followed by British Airways with 487; Delta Air Lines, 455; KLM and Royal Air Maroc jointly had 438 missing luggage each, while Emirates Airlines had 364 within the month under review.
Others were Lufthansa, 208; Africa World Airline, 26; Air Cote D’Ivoire, 28; Arik Air, 25 (regional routes); Asky Airline, 84; Egypt Air, 125; Ethiopian Airlines, 72; Etihad, 9; Kenya Airways, 140; Meridiana, 49; Middle East Airline, 28; Qatar Airways, 82; Rwandair, 172; South African Airways, 96; Turkish Airlines, 134, and Virgin Atlantic Airways had 133 missing/delayed luggage in the month of September.
Also, in the same month, a total number of 1,331,766 passengers passed through the nation’s airports.
The report indicated that a total number of 363,926 passengers were on the international scene. The 363,926 passengers were ferried by 23 foreign carriers.
On the domestic scene, a total number of 967,840 air travellers passed through the domestic airports in the month under review. Eight domestic carriers participated in the ferrying of the passengers within the country.
The domestic airlines were Air Peace, which had the highest number of passengers, followed by Arik Air, Aero Contractors, Max Air, Dana Air, Azman Air, Ibom Air and Overland Airways.
Emirates Airlines, as usual in the past two years, however, had the highest number of passenger movement among the foreign carriers with 58,089 passengers in the month of September alone. The inbound passengers were 29,195, while the outbound passengers were 28,894.
Ethiopian Airline airlifted 37,388 – 18,618 (inbound) and 18770 (outbound) passengers in one month.
Others were Lufthansa, 32,978; Turkish Airlines, 18,941; Virgin Atlantic, 16,140; Africa World Airline, 10961; Air Cote D’Ivoire, 4896; Air France, 17,577; Air Peace, 12,636 (regional and international); Arik Air, 3525; Asky Airline, 16,755; Delta Air Lines, 12,438; Egypt Air, 17,054; Etihad, 8853; Kenyan Airways, 9841; and South African Airways with 8585 passengers in September, among others.
Besides, a total number of 6,928 flights were operated on the local and international scenes in Nigeria in September. Domestic flights were 5, 700, while international flights were 1,228.
Also, there were 3,551 flight delays in one month in the country with the breakdown showing 3,221 for domestic operators and 330 among international operators.
Another 23 flights were cancelled within the month under review: domestic, 16 and international with seven cancelled flights.
British Airways and African World Airline had two cancelled flights each, while Air France, Delta and Badr Air had one cancelled flight each.
