ASKY apologises for incident at Lomé – Togo, International Airport

ASKY has apologised for the incident that happened between their passengers and the airport security forces in flight ET509 by Ethiopian airlines on Saturday December 18th, 2021.

In a letter to Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority by the Country Manager, Nigeria Simon Mobolaji, the company explained they have been trying to fix an IT system discrepancy problem that affected its Central Reservation System, which coordinates bookings on codeshare flights with its partner airlines and airport check in system.

It added that this discrepancy affected some of their esteemed passengers with connection in Lomé airport going to Lagos from US operated flight ET509 by Ethiopian airlines, in such a way that their bookings were not found on the ASKY operated flight KP62 already fully booked from Lomé to Lagos on Saturday December 18th, 2021.

The company further stated that some passengers became overwhelmed as their bookings were not found in the system, they blocked the security control area and transit area for other passengers and forced their way aggressively to the boarding gates.

It said in this process they became physical with the agents and some police forces of the airport until additional support had to be called in for them to be restrained.

“ASKY management present at the scene assured the passengers to be calm as immediate arrangements were made to charter a separate aircraft to transport the passengers whose bookings were not found.

“All passengers finally got to their destination Lagos same day using the separate chartered aircraft. We sincerely apologise and regret that such an isolated incident happened between our esteemed passengers and the airport security forces. We assure everyone that the issue has been resolved to avoid any other further occurrences.

“As a regional Pan African airline our primary objective is to serve our communities and ensure that our passengers and their luggage get to their destination safely using the shortest possible time. This is therefore an isolated incident caused by a system discrepancy and corrective measures have already been taken to ensure this does not happen again.

“Once again, we sincerely apologise for the incident and do take this opportunity to extend our best Christmas greetings and prosperous New Year wishes 2022 to all our passengers, partners and stakeholders. Please accept the assurances of my highest consideration,” the letter read.