Virgin Atlantic Airways’ passenger, Alhaji Ahmed Rabiu, has told a Federal High Court in Lagos that he was neither compensated for his lost luggage nor was it replaced, contrary to the airline’s claim.

Rabiu said this in his response to the defendant’s statement of defence. He argued that his lawsuit was valid and well-founded, as the defendant has not denied that he lost his luggage while using their airline.

In its defence, the airline blamed its inability to trace and locate the plaintiff’s luggage on his failure to provide adequate information on the Property Irregularity Form given to him after he reported the loss.

The defendant also stated that the plaintiff’s allegations of fraud, recklessness, and negligence of the airline, her staff, or her agents were false. The plaintiff, who is a security expert, had sued the defendant over allegations of breach of contract and the loss of his luggage on board its London to Lagos flight on September 24, 2024.

In the suit, he is demanding the sums of $4000 for the value of the items contained in the stolen luggage and N20 million as damages for the distress, inconvenience and solicitors’ fees incurred while recovering the luggage.

In an affidavit filed in support of the suit, he averred that he boarded flight No. CNY3JV from London Heathrow, Britain, to Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos.

After undergoing rigorous security checks, he was properly checked in, along with his tagged prime luggage, by the defendant’s operational staff. But after the plane landed in Lagos, he waited at the conveyor belt from the moment the baggage carousel was activated until it was switched off, and every other passenger picked up their luggage and left except him.

The plaintiff also maintained that he immediately informed the defendant’s staff on the ground, and he was given a Loss of Baggage Form to fill out and submit, which he did immediately, but that the airline neither gave him his luggage nor replaced the same or better still, pay for the value of the contents of his luggage.

He also claimed that upon the theft and loss of his luggage, he caused his lawyers to write the defendant a demand letter requesting the luggage or payment for the contents of the luggage.

The defendant argued that the failure to deliver his luggage to him upon arrival in Lagos after straining his finances to purchase the flight ticket was a massive breach of contract.

The plaintiff also stated that the defendant’s statement of defence is dilatory, vexatious and a deliberate attempt to escape liability. The defendant, in its statement of defence, argued that the plaintiff is not entitled to N20 million as damages, and in the unlikely event that it is found liable in this suit, its liability, if any, shall be as provided in the Montreal Convention 1999, which has been entrenched in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Act, 2023. Justice Alexander Owoeye adjourned proceedings to March 7.

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