Delta Airlines offers Nigerian passengers $1,500 to re-schedule flight

BY OUR REPORTER

Delta Airlines yesterday threw a bait at Nigerian passengers eager to leave the United States through the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta.

The US airliner offered apprehensive passengers, a good number of whose flights had been delayed for at least 24 hours, 1,500 US dollars (N540,000), each, to re-schedule their flights for another day, owing to over selling of seats.

The bait started with $1,000, as passengers desperate to travel milled around the boarding gate. But when it looked like no one was interested in swallowing the bait, the officials, unsure the 335-seat capacity aircraft will accommodate the now crowded boarding gate increased the offer to $1,200.

Still not able to make headway with the mostly Nigerian passengers the airline officials jerked up their offering to $1,500.

It was not clear how many people took the offer finally, as our reporter was one of the earlier passengers to board the flight heading to Lagos.

A female cabin crew member who spoke to reliablesourceng.com said the airline had to take the decision to offer monetary compensation to the passengers because of non-availability of seats.

“The seats were oversold,” she said offhandedly. “I don’t know how many people took the offer, for I was already on board the aircraft,” she added.