The website of Arik Air, one of Nigeria’s leading airlines was hacked by a group called @Op_ArikAir on Thursday over several complaints about bad customer service.

Update 1: 15:12hrs (GMT+1) – The website has been restored. But the hacker group said on Twitter that it would take it down again.

Update 2: 15:35hrs (GMT+1) – The website has been taken down again.

The cyber attack which first occurred at 2:25 pm on Thursday lasted for about one hour, after which another attack was made after about 10 minutes.

According to the hackers, “Arik Air has committed many blatant attempts to destroy the Civil rights of the Ninety Nine percent of the Nigerian Populace”, and “The sooner we begin to fight back Bad Customer Service, the better for us as Nigerians”.

It would be recalled that Arik Air has been under severe criticism since July for allegedly stealing a bloggers’ Apple iPad and for its alleged bad customer relations ranging from the airline’s baggage handling processes to other aspects of its service.

The hacking of the Arik Air website means that customers would not be able to book or schedule their flights online. This news comes just about a week the airline withdrew flight services after aviation workers disrupted its operations over an alleged N7 billion debt owed to parastatals in the industry.

Earlier this week, the airline released a list of 27 persons the management has blacklisted from flying with the airline on any of its routes, both domestic and international, including George Uriesi, Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and social media activist and blogger, Japheth Omojuwa, who alleged that the airline stole his iPad.

Arik Air is one of the leading and largest commercial airlines in West Africa operating a fleet of 23 state-of-the art aircrafts including two Airbuses which caters to its customers in local and international destinations.

– Techloy