The
crises in the aviation industry have taken a toll on activities at the
domestic terminals of the Lagos airport, with airline officials
lamenting low patronage in the past few days.
Some airline officials told our
correspondent in confidence on Monday, that the passengers seemed to
have developed apathy towards air travel, stressing that they might have
become scared of flying following recent developments in the industry.
The officials confirmed that some
passengers had called in to cancel earlier bookings, while most of the
aircraft taking off from both the Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2
and the General Aviation Terminal to various destinations in the
country have had to depart with fewer passengers on board than usual.
Analysts say the development is a
setback to the operators because flying with fewer passengers can make
the airlines run at a loss.
An official of one of the major carriers
told our correspondent that the airline has had to reschedule some of
its flights in the past two weeks due to dwindling patronage and in
order not to run at a total loss.
The official, who asked not to be named
because of the sensitive nature of the subject, said, “Lately,
activities have not been going on as usual; we have noticed a general
reduction in patronage. At first, we chalked it up to the fact that the
summer is over and people may be travelling less at this period; but
further investigations have shown that some customers appear a bit
sceptical about air travels for the time being.
“Perhaps, this is as a result of the
number of mishaps that have been recorded in the Nigerian airspace in
the last few weeks. As a result of this, we have had to adjust our
flying times in a few cases to ensure that we are able to accommodate
more passengers, while running fewer schedules, this is in an attempt to
assist the management to break even.”
On Thursday, October 3, 2013, an
Associated Airline plane crashed in Lagos shortly after taking off,
killing 15 out of the 20 passengers on board.
Twenty-four hours after, a Kabo
Airlines’ Boeing 747-400 plane carrying 512 pilgrims made an emergency
landing at the Sokoto airport with deflated tyres and damaged the
airport’s Instrument Landing System.
On October 7, 2013, the Federal
Government suspended the operations of Dana Airlines once again, citing
the need to carry out an operational audit on the carrier.
On Sunday, October 13, an IRS Airlines’
Fokker 100 plane carrying 99 passengers also made an emergency landing
at the Kaduna airport after developing hydraulic problems mid air.
A passenger, Mr. Uche Igbokwe, told our
correspondent at the MMA2 terminal on Monday, that he had come to see if
he could get a refund for a flight he had earlier booked.
He said, “I am a businessman who lives
in Lagos, but I shuttle between Abuja and Lagos two or three times every
month. I actually booked a ticket for a flight to Abuja towards the end
of last month to fly on Wednesday, but the air crashes and near crashes
witnessed in recent times have become worrisome to me.
“My family advised me to use the road
transport option for the time being, until things are a bit settled in
the industry, and I seem to agree with them. So, I have come to see if I
can reclaim at least some of my money. I know the road option is some
distance, but I will have to manage until things improve in the aviation
sector.”
An aide to a principal officer of the
National Assembly, who pleaded not to be named, said he had stopped
travelling by air to any destination in the country, but was now
embarking on his journeys by road because of the “unsafe state of
aviation” in the country.
Corroborating this, the Chief Executive
Officer, Gadeshire Travels and Tours, Mr. Olugbenga Adebayo, said there
had been reduced bookings for local flights by passengers.
No comments:
Post a Comment