Air passengers traveling within and outside Nigeria experienced a total number of 2,966 delayed arrivals and missing luggage in the first six months of 2017.
An investigation by our correspondent revealed that international airlines and Nigerian carriers operating to regional and international routes were the major culprits in the missing luggage issue as their passengers experienced 2,934 delayed and missing luggage while just 32 of such occurred within the local routes.
Some of the airlines involved in missing luggage according to a document made available to SaharaReporters are African World Airline, Air Cote D’Ivoire, Air France, Arik Air, Asky, Azman Air, British Airways, Camair-Co, Cronos Air, Delta Air Lines, Egypt Air, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines and Etihad Airways.
Others are Kenya Airways, KLM, Lufthansa, Max Air, Meridiana, Med-View, Mid Africa, Middle East, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Rwandair, Saudi Air, Sudan Airlines, South African Airways, Turkish Air and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
An investigation by SaharaReporters indicated that South African Airways recorded the highest number of passengers’ missing luggage with 382, followed by KLM with 197 cases of missing luggage while Delta Air Lines had 193 within the first half of the year.
African World Airlines had 39, Air Cote D’Ivoire, 73; Air France, 145; Arik Air, 127; Asky, 63; British Airways, 259; Egypt Air, 45; Emirates, 88, Ethiopian Airlines, 248 and Etihad Airways with 294 cases of missing luggage within the period.
Others are Kenya Airways, 27; Lufthansa Airlines, 115; Med-View Airline, 24; Qatar Airways, 129; Royal Air Maroc, 181; Rwandair, 106; Turkish Airways, 81 and Virgin Atlantic Airways with 118 cases of missing luggage between January and June this year.
However, according to the document, Aero Contractors did not have any record of missing or delayed luggage within the period while the troubled FirstNation Airways, which operations were downgraded from scheduled to charter by the regulatory agency, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), recently did not have any record of operations in the document made available to our correspondent.
Further investigation revealed that 9,284 of such luggage on the international scene were later recovered, but on the local scene, 31 of 32 missing luggage were recovered, indicating that one luggage was yet to be found as at the end of the first half of the year.
However, the numbers of baggage found were higher than the number of missing luggage in the first half of the year because some of the missing luggage dated back as far as 2016.
From the document made available, African World Airlines recovered 49 missing luggage, Air Cote D’Ivoire, 121; Air France, 642; Arik Air, 171; Aksy Airlines, 355; British Airways, 385; Camair-Co, one; Delta Air Lines, 977; Egypt Air, 229; Emirates, 395; Ethiopian Airways, 226 and Etihad Airways with 314 cases of found baggage.
Others are Kenya Airways with 877 found luggage; KLM, 725; Lufthansa Airways; 443, Meridiana, 26; Med-View, 145; Middle East Airlines, two; Qatar Airways, 389; Royal Air Maroc, 507; Rwandair, 517, South African Airways, 469; Turkish Air, 837 and Virgin Atlantic Airways with 482 cases of found missing luggage in six months of the year.
