Flight operations: 41,473 passengers’ baggage missing in 2019 – Report

…as 9 domestic flights grow by 5,582

Nine domestic carriers in 2019 operated 65,401 flights out of which 37,510 were delayed, according to the Executive Summary of domestic flight operations released by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The report obtained by our correspondent on Monday showed an increase of 5,582 in the number recorded in the previous year 2018 where 59,818 flights were recorded.

The nine airlines included Air Peace, Arik Air, Med-View, Aero Contractors, Overland, Ibom Air, Dana Air, Azman and Max Air.

On the international front, 15,474 flights were operated by 33 airlines.

But the major highlights of the international flight operations was the record of 41,473 cases of missing/delayed luggage between January and December, 2019.

Cases of missing luggage have, in recent times, become a recurring decimal among international carriers resulting in several confrontations at the airport.

Recently, the NCAA issued a suspension warning to Turkish Airlines following the carrier’s frequent cases of missing luggage.

The airline narrowly escaped the suspension threat by bringing in bigger aircraft to convey backlog of passengers’ luggage left behind in Istanbul, its base.

According to the NCAA report, out of the 41,473 missing luggage, 38,440 were found.

The report showed that KLM led with 5,060 missing luggage followed by Delta with 4,413 and closely by Air France with 4,406; Lufthansa had 3,054; Royal Air Maroc had 3,041 missing luggage.

Turkish Air recorded 2,850 cases of missing/delayed luggage; Egypt Air recorded 2,267 cases; Virgin Atlantic had 1,345; Ethiopian Airline, 1,517; Emirates recorded 1,935, among others.

While the international carriers recorded huge cases of missing/delayed flights, the flights operations reduced marginally.

15, 474 flights were operated between January to December 2019 compared to 15, 645 recorded in 2018.

This is linked to the suspension of flights by some airlines operating international flights

Five airlines including Azman Air, Flynas Airline, Max Air, Med-View Airline, Mid-Africa Air did not operate in 2019 while two airlines Angola Air and Cabo Verde commenced operations in December, 2019.