Nigerian domestic carriers have successfully airlifted passengers to various domestic destinations this Yuletide but many passengers complain about high fares, flight delays; sometimes flight cancellations due to low visibility.
Investigations revealled that airlines are facing immense pressure due to upsurge of passengers who wish to get back to their families to celebrate Christmas.
Some passengers were miffed when they spent over four hours waiting for their flights and while the airlines excused themselves and attributed it to poor weather conditions, some of the passengers insist that the delays were caused by inefficient operational planning by the airlines.
In a statement issued by Medview Airline yesterday, the management apologised to passengers for undue delays, which the airline attributed to poor visibility.
In the statement signed by Medview Airline spokesman, Obuke Oyibotha, the management said it regretted the inconveniences caused passengers as result of such delays and rescheduling.
“We share your pains for our inability at the material time to fly you to your destinations at the appointed time”
The airline however attributed the delays to adverse weather conditions and unscheduled aircraft maintenance, which were critical to flight operations.
The airline said the safety of passengers and crew come first before any other considerations, and in such situations, delays and rescheduling become inevitable.
“We have put the necessary logistics in place to meet our obligations to our esteemed passengers who have over the years kept faith with us,” the airline said.
Also spokesman of Air Peace, which controls over 45 percent of domestic passenger traffic, Chris Iwarah, told THISDAY that relatively the fares this Christmas season is not high compared to what is obtained at other times and explained that due to passenger upsurge there is high demand of tickets so the lowest of the tickets are sold off in quick time, while the higher ones, which are purchased by passengers who bought tickets close to their flight time could be as high as N41,000.
Iwarah compared the air fares to what those in land transportation and noted that Lagos to Port Harcourt by land transport is average of N15,000, saying that in comparison air transport could be deemed to be cheaper this time.
He also remarked that bad weather, which leads to poor visibility, is responsible for most of the delays and sometimes flight cancellation, adding that flight delays were also caused by limited facilities at some airports.
For example, at the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, both Arik Air and Air Peace are using only one passenger processing gate each and also using one x-ray machine for each gate. This means that no airline can process two or more flights at the same time. One flight must be processed before another and this causes delays.
It was also gathered that fares to Eastern, South West and South South part of the country are higher than other destinations because these areas are recording upsurge in passenger movement.
“Today I learnt that Lagos-Port Harcourt by road is N15, 000 but the highest fares on our economy ticket are N41, 000 and the cheapest is N20, 000; so road transport in comparison is higher than air fares. But you have to note also that the cost of air ticket is determined by when you buy your ticket. When it is closer to the time you will travel it will higher.
“Travellers should also know that cost of operations has doubled, airport facilities are completely overstretched. Government may be doing its best but these facilities are overstretched due to passenger upsurge. We used to notice these limitations in the past but high passenger movement has made it very obvious and this contributes to flight delays,” Iwarah said.
Spokesman of Dana Air, Kingsley Ezenwa told THISDAY that many of the airline’s flights have not been disrupted by weather and the airline has experienced slight delay in some of its flights. Although the airline has relatively less number of flights compared to Air Peace and Medview, but it has also maintained relatively low fares.
Ezenwa advised passengers to buy tickets in time because the earlier the ticket is purchased, the cheaper, adding that Dana Air always sale tickets at relatively lower fares.
“Passenger demand is high this Yuletide but we have not experienced much delays but I know that air fares to the southern destinations are high because of the high demand by passengers. So my advice is that travellers should book ahead and get cheaper tickets,” Ezenwa said.
Iwarah of Air Peace also recalled that the airline did not operate to Enugu, Akure and Port Harcout due to low visibility sometime last week and pointed out the peculiar problem airlines faced flying to Enugu, as the runway was partly closed from 6:00 am to 3:00 pm for repairs from December 14 to 21, reopened fully from December 22 to 26 and would be partially closed again from December 27 to January 4, 2018.
“We faced the challenge of accommodating everybody in the flights that operate within the given time. What really helped us this time is the fact that some of our aircraft that went on maintenance are back and some of the newly acquires ones have started arriving. There were days we did not fly to Enugu, Akure and Port Harcourt due to poor visibility so we had a backlog. We are doing our best to overcome the challenges but our priority is to make sure that our flights are safe, so we can cancel flight when there is no indication that the weather is safe for flights,” he said.
Compared to last year, there are fewer flight cancellations this year than in 2016 when many flights did not operate from December 21 to 24 and later the airlines adopted the strategy of only flying in the early morning and in the evening for airports that have airfield lighting.
Many of the airlines recorded huge losses last year due to flight cancellations and aviation fuel scarcity, which seem to be available this year despite the scarcity of petrol.
