Passengers Stranded over Poor Facilitation at Lagos Airport

Hundreds of passengers travelling to international destinations from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos were Wednesday delayed for hours due to broken down automated check-in system, forcing airlines to resort to manual facilitation.
This caused delays that lasted for hours as airlines billed to depart by 7:00 pm were forced to shift their departure time, which consequently would affect passengers who are to connect flights to their final destinations.
One of the passengers told THISDAY that all the check-in systems were down, so the manual check-in exercise caused delays and crowding of passengers in long wait, who otherwise would have boarded their flights.
Manual check-in besides delays could breach security as airline officials face hard time identifying the passengers and matching them with the names in their tickets.
The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), George Uriesi, told THISDAY that the automated system could break down without warning and that it may not always be the agency’s system that broke down, observing that because the airlines facilitation systems are connected to their headquarters, any hitches anywhere in the system could affect their operations in Lagos.
“This system could break down anytime but I don’t have any information to the effect that our system is not working. It could be that of the airline. These systems are connected to their headquarters and anything that happens anywhere in the system affects their operations anywhere.
“I will find out what is happening but I doubt it is our system that has problem,” Uriesi said