PASSENGER SUES ARIK OVER REFUND OF CANCELLED FLIGHT FARE

An Arik Airline’s passenger Ahmadu Mustapha has dragged the company to an Abuja High Court, demanding N50 million damages for cancelling his flight and refusing to refund his money.
In a writ of summon deposed at the High Court of FCT, Abuja, through his counsel Haroun M. Eze, the passenger is demanding for N50 million as damages for Arik’s “negligence and wrongful withholding of the plaintiff’s money despite all entreaties thereby causing the plaintiff financial loss, emotional and psychological trauma.”
The passenger is also asking the court for the refund of N47, 757 he paid for the ticket.
In the summon, Mustapha said he bought the Arik Abuja-Maiduguri return ticket scheduled for November 7, 2013; but the flight was cancelled a day before the scheduled flight by the airline.
He said as a result of the cancellation, and the airline’s failure to refund his money early enough, he “had to travel to Maiduguri by road upon additional expenses coupled with untold hardship posed by the insecurity in the region.”
He added that because of the cancellation, he “couldn’t readily get a vehicle out of Maiduguri causing him to report late to his workplace which attracted the embarrassment of query from his employer and near disengagement from his employment.”
He said he lodged a complaint with the Arik office in Abuja, which promised to refund his money. But over two months after his complaint, the airline refused to refund his money.
Source: Daily Trust