The Dramatic Change of Arik Air

Arik Air is one of the renowned airlines operating in Nigeria. They are a household name in the Nigerian Airline Industry but they have also built a bad reputation over the years through their bad services. They were at a time arguably the worst airline in Nigeria. Little wonder they ground themselves to a halt and ran into debts until it was taken over by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and its operations and staff were totally overhauled.

If you are a regular flier you must have noticed how terrible Arik air service was. They never keep to schedule, they delay their flights for hours, they cancel their flights some minutes before departure, they treat customers with no respect, and they have the worst customer support staff. They kept doing this and rendering bad services until people started boycotting the airline and they got themselves multiple lawsuits from aggrieved customers which many are still pending in court. 

I was one of their regular fliers and I experienced a shitload of their terrible customer service until I decided that I have had enough of them and their shitty services. I even made the decision that if Arik Air is the only airline flying in my direction I will cancel or reschedule the trip because I know that once I waste my time and money and get to the airport they will either cancel the flight or delay it for hours without any concrete explanation.

To my utmost disbelief, I recently started seeing and hearing that Arik Air service has changed for good, that they now try to keep up with time and that they no longer cancel flights. When I heard it at first I just felt that it is just a cheap PR sponsored by them just to resuscitate their dying airline because almost every flier I know has boycotted them. Last week, I had no option but to fly to Arik since I was behind schedule and I was desperate to fly out that day to Lagos. So I flew with them from Abuja to Lagos and I was amazed that they stuck to their time. The Arik I know before never sticks to time. In fact I waited about 45 mins before departure before I left my house and went to the airport because I was thinking it’s better I’m still at home when I receive their delay or cancellation message but it didn’t happen, they stuck to the schedule and departed at the fixed time and landed at the fixed time. When we landed in Lagos I was tempted to ask my fellow passengers to join me in giving them a round of applause for a job well done. 

I really hope that Arik Air keeps up with this change because they were really bad, to say the least. To be fair, not just Arik Air, most (if not all) airlines in operation in Nigeria also render terribly bad services. The few Airlines that I have ever used in Nigeria and they didn’t fail are Valuejet, Green Africa and Ibom Air. These are the only airlines I can beat my best any day and say that they stick to time without fail and if they ever fail it must have been caused by factors beyond their control. The other airlines in Nigeria which I’m sure I have used every one of them all provide shitty service. From cancellation to rescheduling of flights to rude customer support staff. 

Arik Air is still on my watch list to see if they have really changed for good or if it was just camouflage.

This is not a free PR for Arik Air but a commendation for them and a charge to them to keep up with the good services they have decided to be rendering from now.