Passengers including hundreds of Nigerians on board Air France operated commercial Aircraft from France to Lagos and Abuja have since Wednesday been stranded at Charles De Gaulle International Airport, Paris.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that many of them have to sleep at the airport from Wednesday for a day or two days owing to what the management of the airline claimed as malfunctioning of their planes and lack of aviation fuel.
Some of the passengers had left Lagos and Abuja for various destinations while many were returning to Lagos from various countries en route the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
Air France, which said their planes could not fly, were scrambling for hardly available seats in other airlines in alliance with them to fly the passengers to their destinations.
Many of the passengers, who in their bookings had about three to five hours layover in Paris, were left stranded spending 17 to 48 hours at the airport.
Some, who were lucky to get the seats in the allied airlines were re-routed and had to spend additional several hours to get to their destinations albeit after several hours of inconvenience. Many of the passengers complained of ill treatment and alleged flouting of standard aviation regulatory operations against the airline.
More pathetic were the vulnerable passengers – the elderly, women with children and some with disability, who went through harrowing experiences. Mrs Olagunju Ojo and Mrs Afolake Arikewuyo, who were in their late 70s said they left the U.S for Lagos en route Paris on Tuesday only to be left stranded at the airport.
The women, who could barely speak English and do not understand French, were in the long queue unassisted while struggling to get their cancelled flight to Lagos re-routed. They said they arrived the airport 12 hours earlier only to be told that their flight to Lagos had been cancelled and there was no alternative arrangement for the day.
Mrs Ojo, who spoke in Yoruba language, said: “We cannot go to Lagos today and there is no Schengen visa to take us outside the airport to sleep.
“They said we will sleep at the airport here and there is no way to communicate with my people waiting for me at the airport at home and those I left in the U.S,” she said.
