Nigerian carrier Arik Air cancelled all domestic flights yesterday stranding hundreds of passengers.
The disruption was as a result of a dispute over the alleged non-payment of fees to the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
The authority reportedly blocked check-in counters and chained doors leading to a boarding gate in the capital of Lagos.
The airline was forced to cancel about 100 domestic flights.
Captain Ado Sanusi, director of operations at Arik Air, told the BBC claims that the airline owes FAAN 18 billion of naira in unpaid airport fees are “fictitious”.
“We said there’s a lot of evidence that we’ve shown that we’ve been paying. Passengers know that we’ve been paying,” he said.
Arik carried more than 1.5 million passengers across its network of 20 domestic, 10 regional and three long-haul destinations – including Heathrow – in the year to August.