…apologises to passengers
By Sade Williams
Medview airline on Friday, explained why it cancelled its Lagos-London flight meant to depart on Friday 26, January, saying it was due to an issue generated by its handling agents at Gatwick, London.
The airline, through its Executive Director, Business Development and Commercial, Isiaq Na’Allah, explained in a statement that when Medview handling agent informed it on January 24 that will not be providing services to its aircraft, its management immediately informed Gatwick Authority, who the airline alleged that rather than intervene, joined the agent in aggravating the issue.
The airline, which said it strongly regrets the situation said: ‘After the departure of our flight from Lagos to London on Wednesday 24 January, we were informally informed by our handling agent that they will not be providing services to our aircraft. We immediately sought intervention of the Gatwick Authority who is expected to be unbiased but joined the fray surprisingly. Not wanting to take chances, we sought for alternative handling arrangements to avert an ugly situation but this proved abortive.
“Our passengers who were scheduled to come to Lagos on this service were therefore denied boarding and we had to provide accommodations and logistics for them with the hope that we will clear the issue the next day and then operate the service.
“Our European partner, EAA came and intervened but this also proved abortive. This we view strongly as unethical and draws a suspicious motive. In order to avoid more embarrassing situations we protected these passengers on other alternative carriers to Lagos. We strongly regret this situation.
“As it became evident that our airplane will not be allowed to come and position to Lagos for our next rotation to London, we had no choice other than to cancel our London service today, Friday 26 January. This we effectively communicated to our passengers and protected them on other carriers. While some accepted the offer, some rejected insisting they want a particular carrier. We are presently working to resolve with these passengers”, he said.
