Customers complain as Arik Air flight to Lagos is delayed for 6hrs

Tired passengers who were waiting to board the

The incident which was reported by an eyewitness who was supposed to be on the flight, happened on Monday, February 29, when the flight which was supposed to take off at 11:40 pm, was delayed till 5:45am on Tuesday, March 1, with no staff of the company able to say why the passengers were delayed for that long.

Inside the Arik Air Plane

Photo Credit: Pulse Eyewitness

Our eyewitness also lamented Arik's lack of consistency and performance, stating that passengers had to shout before they were treated with respect and honesty.

This is a concise account as given by Pulse Eyewitness in what is now tagged #ArikTooLate.

Facts on the delay:

*Arik first told passengers at 10pm that the delay was till 4.15am. However this was based on lack of information - with the airplane grounded in Lagos 'due to technical issues'.

*At 11pm to 12 midnight, the delay was moved to 5.30am as passengers were informed sporadically by helpless South African staff talking to faceless management in Nigeria.

*Actual departure moving to 5.45 am SA time (i.e. in the next tens of minutes)

*The pilot just said 'operational reasons' were the issue.

Stranded Arik Air Passengers

Photo Credit: Pulse Eyewitness

*Economy passengers were sleeping at the gate - only when business passengers in the lounge working within the government complained for 1 hour+, about the intransparency of the communication and lack of preparation at Arik, they themselves were moved to a transition hotel, and the economy passengers moved to the lounge.

*It seems Arik waited for this escalation before action was taken. Something we would clearly expect otherwise.

*Flight was also almost empty - 30-45 seats filled in 200 people aircraft.

*Do you as passengers have similar experiences with Arik being late? #ArikTooLate

*Has this been an experience for you with Arik in the past? And has Arik's turnaround to support been in the end too little too late? #ArikTooLate

Another passenger, Dr Joe Abah, who experienced the same fate on an Abuja bound Arik flight from Lagos also took to twitter to state how a flight that was supposed to take off at 12.42am was delayed till 5pm.

"This is how Arik has kept us in Lagos by 12:42 am for a 5pm YESTERDAY flight!"

Read the tweet here.