At least, 44,712 luggage were declared missing among 29 local and international airlines that operated  in Nigeria’s airports in 2018, a report obtained from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has revealed.

The report further revealed that in 2018, there were at least 15,645 flights operated on international routes, while another 59,818 flights were operated on the domestic routes within the period.

NCAA stated that its Consumer Protection Directorate (CPD) received a total number of 161 complaints from air travellers in 2018 with 99 of such complaints resolved by the directorate.

The breakdown indicated that the CPD received 74 complaints on the international scene and resolved 36 of such, while 87 complaints were received from the local operating airlines with 63 of such resolved within the period under review.

According to it , Air France led the pack with 6,175 missing luggage on the international scene, while Air Peace led the other eight indigenous carriers on the local scene with 66 missing baggage within the period under review.

The report, however, indicated that 41,498 of the missing luggage were later retrieved by their owners, while the other 3,214 luggage could not be recovered by the airport authorities.

 Apart from Air France with the 6,175 missing luggage, on the international scene,other airlines involved in missing luggage were KLM with 5,088; African World Airlines, 308; Air Cote d’Ivoire, 670; Air Namibia, 221; Arik Air, 172 and Asky, 1,167; 

Continuing : British Airways, 4,273; Cam Air-Co, 109; Cronos Air, one; Delta Air Lines, 3,473; Egypt Air, 2,448; Emirates, 1,725; Ethiopian Air, 1,946; Etihad, 472; Kenya, 1,152, and Lufthansa with 3,750 missing luggage.

Others were Mediana, 218; Med-View, 25; Middle East, eight; Mid Africa, 112; Qatar Airways, 1,238; Royal Air Maroc, 2,624; RwandAir, 1,234; South African Airways, 762; Turkish Air, 4,348, and Virgin Atlantic had 1,166 missing luggage within the period.

On the local scene, out of the eight local airlines that operated within the period under review, seven out of them, except Azman Air, had issues of missing baggage in 2018.

According to the report, Air Peace had 66 missing luggage with 63 of them recovered within the period, while Arik Air recorded 59 missing luggage with 55 of them recovered.

Also, Dana Air had 34 of its air passengers’ luggage missing with 32 of them recovered between January and December, 2018; Aero Contractors had six missing luggage with all of them recovered within the period.

Besides, Max Air recorded four missing luggage with all of them recovered, while Med-View and Overland Airways also had two luggage of their passengers missing within the period, but were later recovered.

In all in 2018, 173 luggage were declared missing, but 164 of them were recovered with nine not returned to their owners till date, according to the report.

Besides, the report indicated that in 2018, no fewer than 734 flights were cancelled among operating airlines, international and local.

Of these numbers, 190 were cancelled on the international scene, while a massive 544 occurred within the local airlines.

In all, there were 85 air returns in 2018; 25 among international carriers and 60 among the local operating airlines.

According to NCAA, all the operating airlines recorded 70 overbooking between January and December 2018 with international airline recording 11, while 58 of such occurred among the eight local carriers.

The regulatory agency in the report further stated that air travellers on local and international scenes experienced 92 numbers of luggage pilfering across the airport with 63 of such recorded on the international scene, while the other 29 was on the local scene.

The regulatory agency’s report emphasised that in the past year, all the international airports in the country recorded a total number of 1,994,099 in-bound passengers and 2,084,980 out-bound passengers, thereby bringing the total of international passengers to 4,079,079.

On the local scene, a total number of 10,092,643 were in-bound and out-bound passengers.

Of these numbers, 5,033,669 were in-bound passengers, while the other 5,058,974 were out-bound passengers.

The record showed that the entire Nigerian airports recorded 14,171,722 passenger movements in the past year.