A Staten Island man claims he deserves $600,000 because there were delays during his Air France trip to France to attend his brother’s funeral.
Nicholas Owoyemi took an Air France flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris Sept. 20, with a planned connection to Murtala Muhammed International Airport in his homeland of Lagos, Nigeria.
But the trip went awry when Air France “excessively delayed” his connecting flight, he said in a Staten Island Supreme Court lawsuit against the airline.
Owoyemi, 66, who is representing himself, said the airline owes him for the “emotional and financial strain” they allegedly put him through on the round-trip.
“They gave me the runaround and they lost my baggage, which was not found for three weeks,” Owoyemi, 66, fumed to the Post. “They dropped the ball. It’s awful.”
Owoyemi, who was supposed to arrive in Lagos at 9:40 p.m., according to his ticket, instead arrived at 1 a.m. on Sept. 21, the court docs state.
Due to the delay, Owoyemi and his travel companion “could not reach their destination and had to stay in a nearby hotel overnight for unnecessary but additional cost,” he said in court papers.
Although he made it to his brother’s funeral service, Owoyemi said his return trip to New York was also delayed by more than five hours and at one point Air France “rebooked” him on a Delta Airlines flight that didn’t have him listed as a passenger.
“Due to Owoyemi’s poor medical/heart conditions, he suffered grief and discomfort and became ill for the duration of time at Paris Airport,” he said in court papers. “In poor health, [he] walked the long distance between Air France and Delta Airlines terminals several times to catch a flight to New York.”
“You should be able to travel with minimum distraction,” Owoyemi said, adding, Air France “dropped the ball from the beginning.”
Air France did not immediately return messages.
