The Nigerian Consulate in Atlanta has responded to the Ethiopian Airlines ticket “scalping” incident in Houston, denying wrongdoing and dismissing reports concerning the flight.
Nigerian Consulate: No Scalping, No Standbys On Ethiopian Airlines Repatriation Flight From Houston To Lagos.
Earlier this week I shared a story circulating in Nigerian media about a repatriation flight gone very wrong. The story centered on a chartered Ethiopian Airlines flight, ET8574, from Houston to Lagos that was delayed several hours on August 15, 2020. Allegations of Nigerian Embassy officials scalping tickets to desperate standby passengers made for an attention-grabbing headline.
But while I have been in touch with an alleged passenger on the flight who claims that tickets were being scalped, Nigeria is pushing back and offering a different narrative.
Nigeria’s Atlanta consulate confirms the flight was booked full and there were consulate officials on hand at Houston Bush Intercontinental airport. While the press release never discusses how standby passengers were handled or explains the reason for the delay, it does state that passengers paid for tickets directly via Ethiopian Airlines and not via the consulate.
Here is the press release, in full:
The Consulate General of Nigeria, Atlanta wishes to refer to the unfortunate incident that occurred on 15 August 2020, on Ethiopian Airlines flight No. 8574 to Lagos and Abuja respectively. The Consulate General of Nigeria, Atlanta wishes to express regret at this unfortunate incident and to assure the General public that the Consulate General of Nigeria, Atlanta has engaged the Ethiopian Airlines Management to find out what actually happened with a view to avert future occurrence of such an incident.
Consequently, The Consulate General of Nigeria, Atlanta wishes to assure the General Public that subsequent flights would be smooth without hitch.
In addition, the Consulate General of Nigeria, Atlanta wishes to inform that its attention has been drawn to publications on social media insinuating that “Nigerian Officials Scalp Tickets to highest bidders” and to state the facts as follows:
- Officers from the Consulate General of Nigeria, Atlanta were on ground to ensure that the evacuees complied with Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force guidelines on COVID -19 and to render any consular assistance the evacuees might have needed. They were assisted by Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), President, Exco officials of NIDO, Houston and medical Volunteer personnel from Association of Nigerian Physicians in America (ANPA) and Association of Nigerian Nurses, Houston branch;
- Evacuees bought their tickets online at www.ethiopianairlines.com prior to departure and all payments were also made directly to Ethiopian airlines;
- Only evacuees who have bought tickets were attended to on the day of evacuation/departure;
- Tickets for the flight from Houston to either Abuja or Lagos were sold at US$ 1,500 and 3,000 for economy and Business class respectively due to longer flight hours, as against the initial price given by the Ethiopian Airlines of US$ 1,700 and US$3,500. The hours of flight from Newark to either Lagos or Abuja are shorter hence the lower fare;
- For the flight of that fateful day, 15 August 2020, a Preliminary manifest was forwarded to the Consulate General by Ethiopian Airlines management days before departure of the flight because the flight was fully booked, for onward transmission to Headquarters in Abuja. This was the normal practice. The Manifest had a total of three hundred and seven (307) confirmed adult passengers;
- The actual and final manifest had a total of two hundred and eighty-five (285) adult passengers and 28 infants that arrived Lagos and Abuja on 16 August 2020 excluding infants on board the flight;
- 4 evacuees disembarked, 6 evacuees were not allowed to check-in due to non-presentation of valid up to date COVID-19 negative test results and one was taken away by USCBP bringing the total of those who did not travel for one reason or the other to eleven; and
- There were eleven vacant seats aboard the flight due to no show.
Issued by:
Consulate General of Nigeria
Atlanta
18 August 2020
The consulate has just placed this online, as I was forwarded a photo of the press release from a doctor from the Association of Nigerian Physicians, a group which sent volunteers to Houston to help ensure passengers onboard complied with Nigerian health regulations.
Open Questions Remain
I do have a few thoughts about the incident.
First, the flight was operated by a 787-9, which offers 315 seats onboard. If the flight was “fully booked” then there must have been more than 311 passengers onboard.
If there was 285 adult passengers onboard plus lap infants and 315 total seats, that’s a difference of 30 seats. But the consulate claims the flight went out 11 open seats. Wouldn’t that suggest that some standby passengers were accommodated?
Based upon the press release, I don’t quite understand how the pricing worked either.
I’ve reached out to the consulate to try to understand these discrepancies.
CONCLUSION
Live and Let’s Fly strives to be a purveyor of genuine news, not fake news. I’m publishing the press release in full to highlight that my goal is to correctly report what happened at Houston Airport on August 15, 2020. But I will continue to investigate what actually occurred.
If you were a passenger on that flight, please feel free to leave a comment below with what your experience was like at the airport and onboard.
What do you make of the press release?
The fact that the ‘officials’ came out with an ‘explanation’ this quickly is pretty telling IMO. It’s quite perplexing that the more prominent African countries don’t want to be seen as corrupt or shady in public, yet the world already knows the stereotypical way they conduct themselves, unfortunately.
Just own it, and move on, we all know nothing will change or improve from this.
I was one of the volunteers . The author is sending a subliminal message as usual about anything black . How can officials from the consulate be selling tickets ? Have you thought about that ? Yes the plane was delayed longer than expected but the writer did not even try to find out the reason for the delay . There were passengers that were stuck here longer and were going back with more than $10,000.00 . They had to get them off and their luggages . The mistake the crew made was they did not tell the passengers what was going on and they did not turn on the AC because they wanted to save on fuel . So for this writer , Mathew, to try and sensationalize it is unprofessional. People that volunteered and the consulate already left before they found out that the plane did not take off on time . Of course the consulate had to investigate and respond immediately. This is fake news , like President Trump would say . Matthew needs to get a real job instead of trying to make a buck by destroying other races . Thank you
Nigerians claiming innocence on alleged shady business practices? Who woulda thunk it?
Evidently the silly author has already made up his mind to write a negative piece and some people tend to follow because that’s how it works. A bunch of Caucasians broke a goal post during celebration after a match is reported as “oh these guys are so happy after their victory “. A bunch of black kids do same in similar scenario are called “look are those thugs !” Thank GOD internet social media is exposing this nonsense . Go think about it .Get your knee off our neck . I was at the airport and your “report “ is ridiculous!
The 787-9 has 285 economy seats and 30 business class seats.The flight was full with 285 economy class passengers and obviously no higher paying Cloud 9 Business Class Passengers. Precise language would have cleared up any confusion.
You have to be kidding me “Dr. ordain Ojo” if you are a real person/Dr. where are you licensed ? Full Disclosure here if your going to write the dribble that you did.
Dr Odion ojo I guess all white people are bad and people like you are the best
But let’s face Nigeria don’t have a good reputation
Around the world
If he really knew anything about the aviation he writes about, he’d be aware there are many types of non revenue passengers on board including deadhead crew, engineers and probably consulate staff. For an adhoc flight as such that originated from Addis you do expect a certain excess of crew considering there won’t be a change of crew on landing in the US.
Furthermore, repatriation flights follow a slightly different commercial model compared to airlines operational flights. The consulate apparently pays for the exclusive use of the flight and may decide to include as many passengers as possible even on the day of travel with instruction to the airline to issue tickets. It is not scalping, it’s called go-show in aviation. An ironic example is that one of the repatriation flights from Nigeria to the US on same airline in July admitted more passengers after boarding was completed. There were a few vacant seats onboard, and on instruction of the US consulate official overseeing operations who stated that the flight was paid for, more tickets were issued and passengers checked in. The flight was delayed for a further two hours. Nobody screamed bloody murder.
Why Ethiopian airline and not Nigerian airways?
The above question confirmed every thing one needs to know about the whole story. The Nigerian government is a never do well. Even the Ngerian embassy in Atlanta runs there Visas by agents, the amount they charge for Visa fees is not what they write on the receipt.
Nigeria Airways? I figure you’re still living in the 70s. The airline went moribund more than 30 years ago!
By the way what does this author gets out of these constantly smearing Ethiopian airlines, who is paying you , What’s your mission ,it’s so obvious that you’re working for some kind of airlines industry. You don’t look great buddy and change your subject and you may get better attention.
Not sure what you are talking about. I’ve written many glowing reports about Ethiopian Airlines Cloud 9.
https://liveandletsfly.com/ethiopian-airlines-787-8-business-class-review/
https://liveandletsfly.com/ethiopian-airlines-787-business-class-review/
https://liveandletsfly.com/ethiopian-airlines-new-787-business-class-review/
https://liveandletsfly.com/ethiopian-airlines-business-class-lounge-review/