Chinyere, a New York City civil servant would rather not reveal the pain and agony caused her by the incompetence of Nigerian Airways, her country’s national carrier. Pressed by African Abroad to relate it, she spoke of how her carefully planned Christmas vacation, including a relative’s wedding, was turned into a modern-day horror story.

“When I arrived in Lagos directly from New York, I waited like other passengers for my luggage. Then came the announcement that our luggage was left behind in New York! I was very disappointed and my feelings of pain were not reduced by the assurance of Nigerian Airways officials that the luggage would be arriving with the next flight from New York."

According to Chinyere, the luggage did not arrive the following day, and days turned to weeks. The flight arrived in Lagos without incident, but on Christmas Eve, her luggage and that of others were still expected. Confused, our source said she left for the east of the country and borrowed clothes―though she was unable to attend the wedding because her clothes were still missing, abandoned by the airline in New York. Her luggage finally arrived January 7, 2003―two days before she was due to travel back to the United States and about two weeks after she arrived in Lagos. Yet, the airline was not done with her. When she arrived at the Murtala Mohammed Airport for her flight back, the airline had no seat for her and she was forced to buy an expensive ticket on a different airline to fly back to New York.

For Shade, a resident of Chicago, her nightmare began when she arrived at the Lagos Airport to catch her flight back to the United States. She said she was shocked by the level of confusion and at the crowd of stranded passengers at the airport. On further inquiry, she was told that the 2,000 passengers were waiting for Nigerian Airways to fulfill its obligation to fly the passengers, all of whom were ticketed for a direct Lagos-New York trip. This, the airline could not do. It turned out that many of the passengers had been stranded at the airport for two weeks because Nigerian Airways had no plane in its fleet to fly them back to the United States. Many could not feed themselves and therefore resorted to begging and asking for handouts from fellow passengers and sympathetic airport workers. Indeed, they were reduced to refugees as the airline neither provided hotel accommodation to its stranded passengers nor did it make any arrangement to fly them back to the United States. Additionally, many of the passengers had no relatives in Lagos who could put them up while they searched for alternative means of returning to their jobs and families in the United States.

Angry passengers were forced to sack the offices of the Nigeria Airways at the airport while the airline officials fled, leaving the stranded passengers to fend for themselves and to bargain with other airlines. This newspaper learned that because of the poor reputation of Nigerian Airways, most airlines were not willing to accept the flight tickets issued by the airline, the usual practice in the industry. Only Virgin Atlantic agreed to fly some passengers back to New York using the Nigerian Airways tickets.

According to our investigations, the Nigeria Airways owes the company that leased it the craft some $10 million. With such a debt, the leasing company was said to have withdrawn its craft in the midst of the busiest season of the year.

It is not difficult to see why Nigeria Airways ran into financial difficulties in the most profitable route (New York-Lagos) in its operation. For instance, it was learned that the management of Nigerian Airways routinely divert sales money to offset debt in its London office and flights originating from Lagos are sold for between $100 to $200 to cronies and friends of Nigeria Airways personnel and other government officials. It was also alleged that Kema Chikwe, the Nigerian minister of aviation, routinely gave directives that free tickets be issued to her friends and relatives, and some were usually housed in hotels in New York at the expense of the airline.

Many passengers have sworn never to patronize Nigeria Airways again. Others have taken their case further, by suing the airline in U.S. courts to collect damages.

Ms. Nena, the station manager for the Nigeria Airways in New York, declined to comment on the issue or the pending suits.