Camair-co customers livid over four-day flight cancellations

Customers are beyond furious with repeated cancellations of Camair-Co flights due to the unavailability of the Boeing 767-300, better known as the “Dja."

Thirty something angry passengers gathered in the airlines lobby to protest. While some are sprawled in armchairs, completely overwhelmed by the situation, others stormed the office of regional manager, Abubakar Machia Mbarara.

"We were expected to fly on Monday,” says one female flyer. “And up today, we still have not been on board despite having already paid for everything.”

Another male passenger, who struggled to hide his bitterness, said: “[June 27], it was thought that the troubles were over. They made us embark on a flight to Nsimalen, but an hour later we are told we must immediately disembark. We were given all our belongings while boarding stamps had already been paid and luggage tagged."

Customers were even more infuriated that the company management did not provided them with any information for the reasons of the delay, or on the date of the next shipment.

Behind his desk, Abubakar Machia Mbarara can hardly contain the flood of complaints and recriminations that befell him.

In his attempt to explain, he would simply ask passengers to be more patient and that the company was doing its best to bring the situation back to normal.

He affirms he has been in telephone contact with the CEO but there is nothing he can do for customers. One passenger ready to do battle spits that this is the fourth time this year Camair has done this to her.

Abubakar Machia Mbarara refused to speak to journalists, however according to an article in “Le Messager” on Monday 23, of June an official had said the aircraft was undergoing revisions required between flights, but during take-off, a light indicating a technical failure triggered on the dashboard and the driver refused to take the air under these conditions.

The second airliner is still stuck in Paris for an unpaid bill of 600 million CFA francs.

When this article went to press, Hugues Ngono, communication officer of Camair-co, which the Messenger contacted on Monday, says that "this is not the first time our angry passengers have attacked Camair-Co employees.

“The flight was just cancelled for technical reasons. The aircraft, the Dja in this case was not ready.

He left for review and should be back tonight or tomorrow. Besides a claims service exists to handle complaints from customers," he argued.