Turkish Airlines Begins Airlift Of Stranded Passengers

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has allowed the Turkish Airlines to commence moving stranded passengers to their various destinations.

LEADERSHIP reports that the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) had picketed the Airlines over allegations of high handedness and maltreatment of its workers, including unjustifiable dismissal and forced resignation of seven workers.

The measure however resulted in passengers being stranded at airports in Lagos and Istanbul, Turkey.

However, a press statement issued by the Vice Chairman, Lagos State Council of the NLC, Olabisi Adebayo Idowu, said the intervention of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), as well as the Nigerian Police Force and the Airport Command of the Department of State Services, made them stopped picketing the airlines.

Idowu premised the decision of the labour union from further picketing the Turkish Airlines on pure humanitarian ground.

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“At the intervention of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), as well as the Nigerian Police Force and Department of State Services, Airports Command, the Congress has taken the decision to allow the passengers stranded at the Lagos and Istanbul airports who were booked on the flights for 21/05/2024 to be airlifted by Turkish Airlines. This decision is purely on humanitarian grounds.

“The picketing exercise other than as allowed above shall remain firmly in place until all the demands of NLC are fully met,” Idowu said.

Meanwhile, the NCAA has also brokered peace between NUATE and the European carrier that will allow the airline move its Nigeria passengers who have been stranded at the International Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos following the Union’s picketing of the airline on Tuesday.

Following the NCAA intervention, NUATE has temporarily agreed to shelve further interruption of Turkish Airlines operations in Lagos and Abuja to allow the stranded inbound and outbound passengers to be carried from across the world.

The agreement was reached after a meeting with the representative of the Acting Director General of the NCAA, Mr. Michael Achimugu, who is also the Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection of the agency.

Achimugu had on Wednesday evening after meeting with the Country Manager of Turkish Airlines in Nigeria, promised to meet with the union on Thursday to resolve the impasse.

The meeting had representatives of NUATE led by its General Secretary, Comrade Ochema Aba, the Lagos Regional Manager of NCAA, Mrs Bukola Teriba, among others.