The grounding of Arik is causing chaos as about the only way of getting to Port Harcourt today is by Aero, which naturally is totally overbooked
. Flying on internal flights in Nigeria is a nightmare at present with the few carriers left constantly bumping passengers, delaying flights by anything up to 6 hours or cancelling altogether. Things are unlikely to improve until some business sense comes into play. Airlines like Arik are started by groups of individuals with enormous sums of money who have no clue how to run an airline, fail to employ enough people who do and then either ignore their advice or continue interfere with the day-to-day operations
. That coupled with massive inefficiency and corruption ensure that the system cannot work.
The only alternative for the long-suffering passengers is to take their chances on Nigeria's appalling roads which are plagued by terrible condition, frequent roadblocks set up by corrupt policemen and local government officials on the take and gangs of armed robbers. To be fair, there are quite a few long distance coach operators who now have fairly modern, reliable, air-conditioned buses who in many cases take no longer than flights with all the delays and cancellations. Sadly, even though they're much cheaper, many people regard them with suspicion or don't want to travel just because of the risks I've just mentioned and the discomfort of getting shaken around over the awful roads.
There seems to be little or no short or medium solution, which in Africa's most populous (and one of its richest) nation is an absolute disgrace
