A combined photo of Max Air aircraft
By Our Reporter
A good number of passengers scheduled to depart Yola for Abuja on Max Air’s 11am flight were left stranded for over six agonizing hours on Monday without any explanation—only to be told by 5pm that the flight had been cancelled.
The passengers told SaharaReporters that there was no provision for accommodation, meals, nor alternative arrangements.
The disappointment quickly turned to fury when Max Air staff also announced that there would be no flights the next day or the day after, effectively grounding stranded travellers indefinitely.
Among those affected were individuals traveling for urgent business engagements, medical appointments, job interviews, and other critical matters.
Many expressed outrage over the airline’s poor communication and utter disregard for passenger welfare.
“This is a disgrace,” fumed Yakubu Ibrahim, a business executive who said he was travelling to Abuja for a make-or-break business meeting.
“I arrived at the airport before 10am hoping to get to Abuja by noon. No explanation, no food, no hotel, no apology — just silence for hours, and then a flat cancellation. I’ve lost an important contract because of this negligence.”
Passengers said they were initially told to “wait patiently” as the airline cited “operational issues” without further details.
Repeated attempts to seek clarification from airline staff were met with silence or vague assurances.
By evening, tempers flared as the official announcement of cancellation came—without any gesture of accountability or restitution from Max Air.
The situation is just the latest episode in Nigeria’s notoriously unreliable air travel sector, plagued by chronic delays, sudden cancellations, poor customer service, and aging fleets.
Industry analysts and frequent flyers alike have long lamented the absence of robust regulatory enforcement from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which often fails to penalize airlines for poor service delivery or to protect passengers’ rights.
Over the years, both local and international airlines operating in Nigeria have developed a pattern of last-minute changes and passenger abandonment, despite the existence of passenger rights charters that require airlines to provide care—including meals, accommodation, and refunds—during prolonged delays or cancellations.
“They just treat us like we don’t matter,” he added. “If this happened in any serious country, the airline would be fined and passengers compensated. Here, we’re on our own.”
Efforts to reach Max Air for comments were unsuccessful, as all the phone numbers listed on the airline’s official website were switched off as of the time of filing this report.
