Reputed for its poor passenger relations, management of Turkish airlines has reiterated its commitments not to have a change of man as it has left 18 pupils and three instructors of Glisten International College, Abuja stranded at Ataturk International Airport, Turkey.
The under age students and their instructors got stranded in the gulf country after the airline could not airlift them back to Nigeria as scheduled.
The students age between 11 and 14years and their teachers were made to sleep under a very cold condition at the resting area of the airport terminal over night with just blankets provided them by the management of the airline, rather than in an hotel.
Africanbusinesstravel.com.ng learnt that the team, which had gone to United States to represent Nigeria in a competition few weeks ago, was forced to part with the sum of $40 about ( N15.200 ) , totaling $880 (N378, 400) before they could be allowed to sleep in the frozen condition at the airport.
A source close to the school who confirmed the bad experience of the pupils with our correspondent, said that the team had boarded Turkish Airlines flight from Abuja, Nigeria to US with a stopover at Istanbul Airport.
But, problem started with the students were on the return leg; US-Istanbul-Abuja of the flight.
Information gathered by our correspondent indicated that the flight from US to Istanbul was delayed for an hour by the same airline and as at the time the flight eventually departed US and arrived at Istanbul for the connecting flight, the Istanbul-Abuja flight had already departed.
The source said that when the team contacted the management of the airline in Turkey for a better accommodation, the airline declined, saying that they could not be responsible for their accommodation despite the fact the flight miss was not their own making.
Since the students had been stranded at the airport, they have been responsible for their own feeding and other expenses.
The source said: “Our pupils, students and instructors went to the US to represent Nigeria and were supposed to return on Monday, but missed the leg to Nigeria because the flight from US, which is equally Turkish Airlines delayed their flight for an hour and by the time we got to Istanbul, the flight to Abuja had already departed.
“When that happened, we approached them for accommodation for our team, but the airline said they won’t be responsible for accommodation or feeding of our team. Rather, we were told to sleep at the resting room of the terminal and we had to pay from our purse, which negates the international standards.
“These are children between the ages of 11 and 15 years and are exposed to this harsh treatment. Could they have done that with their own citizens? Or, will they allow any Nigerian carrier to do that to their citizens in Nigeria? I am begging our government to take up this challenge because these kids went to represent Nigeria in the US.”
Meanwhile, every effort to get a reaction from Turkish Airlines in Nigeria has proved abortive.
When our correspondent contacted the media consultant of the airline in Nigeria, KunmoCom PR, promised to get across to our correspondent, which it never did as at the time of filing this story.
