- Medview Begins Airlift of Stranded London-bound Passengers
Medview Airlines on Tuesday finally commenced the airlift of hundreds of London-bound passengers who were left stranded at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos after the carrier failed twice in its bid to convey the travellers to their destination.
It was gathered that about 700 passengers of the airline were to be airlifted on Tuesday and Wednesday, as the carrier had been able to secure aircraft for the purpose.
The media had on Sunday and Monday reported how the London-bound passengers of Medview Airlines were left stranded at the Lagos airport.
When asked on Tuesday if the carrier had started airlifting the travellers as it had earlier promised, the media consultant to Medview, Mr. Obuke Oyibotha, told our correspondent that over 700 passengers were to be airlifted between Tuesday and Wednesday.
He said, “We are completing the airlift of stranded passengers because our flight returned from London this (Tuesday) morning with travellers, and it is going back with about 300 passengers out of Lagos.
“Also, a 747 aircraft is coming this (Tuesday) night and it will airlift over 400 passengers out of Lagos to London; meaning that by tomorrow (Wednesday), we are normalising all these issues and reverting to our regular flight operations.”
Confirming Obuke’s words, the airline issued a statement saying that it had commenced the airlift of passengers on the Lagos-London route.
It said the first batch of passengers from London Gatwick arrived the Lagos airport aboard a B767 aircraft on Tuesday at 7.30am.
“The same aircraft is positioned to take passengers from Lagos to London on Tuesday night. The airline’s B747 aircraft will enter service also on Tuesday night with another flight from London, arriving Lagos in the early hours of Wednesday,” the airline said.
According to the statement, the flight disruption on the route was compounded by an accident at the Gatwick airport, which affected other airlines, and also the inability of the CAA to grant the necessary permits over the weekend for charter flights to clear the backlog of passengers.
This is coming as the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria announced its readiness for the certification of major airports by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.
