Hundreds of Max Air passengers are facing hours of delay and cancellations as the airline operates only one aircraft for seven destinations of Kano, Abuja, Lagos, Maiduguri, Yola, Sokoto and Port Harcourt.
Max Air began its domestic flight operations in Nigeria In July 2018, taking off a Boeing 737-300 aircraft with 29 passengers on board from Aminu Kano International Airport and landing at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Max Air had been carrying out Hajj, Umrah and charter operations in Nigeria for over a decade before joining the domestic market.
DAILY NIGERIAN gathered two of the three Boeing 737 operated by the airline for domestic operations are said to be undergoing checks, leaving only one to fly passengers to the seven destinations on daily basis.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulation (Nig. CARS) 2015 mandates at least two airworthy aircraft in the fleet of commercial airlines.
Insiders told DAILY NIGERIAN that the airline had refused to suspend their operations to some destinations in order to avoid delays and inconveniences they caused passengers as a result of hours of delay.
It was also learnt that the airline’s weekend flight from Kano, which is scheduled for 5:45pm now delays take off till 7 to 9pm.
An angry passenger who spoke with our reporter said the airline left them stranded for 12 hours at Kano airport without clear explanation on May 21.
“This is really sad. Our flight to Abuja from Kano was to take off at 7pm according to the flight schedule but did not take off until 7:15pm the next day,” said a stranded passenger.
A source also alleged that the airline, despite its habitual long hours of delay, closes its counters and shut out passengers even before the aircraft lands in order to allocate their tickets to other passengers at a higher cost.
The airline’s director of Flight Operations, Captain Ibrahim Dilli, neither responded to our reporter’s call nor reply a text message seeking the airline’s response on the matter.
DAILY NIGERIAN
