EMIRATES AIRLINE V. UZOAKU KENECHUKWU NGONADI

AMINA ADAMU AUGIE, JCA (Delivering the Leading Judgment): The Respondent, a student at a Canadian University, purchased a return ticket to Canada from the Appellant through a registered travel agency in Nigeria-Bits Travel and Tours Ltd.,in the sum of N200,425.00. She was issued a ticket with Reference No. EDTMDF on the 27th May 2008, and had no problems boarding the Appellant's aircraft on the 29th of May, 2008 to Canada via Dubai. However, her return trip on the 22nd of December, 2008 was a different story.

She arrived at the Pearson Airport in Canada and was duly checked in. After airport security screening and passport control protocols, she proceeded to board the aircraft with other passengers, but it was at the point of entering the aircraft that an official of the Appellant denied her entry on the ground that she did not have a proper paper ticket to enable her return back to Lagos.

She explained to the official that the ticket was purchased in Nigeria and was the same ticket s…