MMIA Airport Manager confirms decrease in departures, increas in arrivals
Air passengers are not only having a hard time getting flight tickets due to the rush, airfares are now on the high side.
The airports terminals are full og passengers jostling to buy tickets with difficulty.
Those who have tickets are not certain whether they will travel today or not as they are delays and cancellations of flights even air return due to bad weather or arriving at Airports with visual flights only.
Some Passengers at the Lagos airport both at the MM2 and the GAT 1 say the airfares were not only high, airlines were frustrating their efforts at getting cheaper fares as most of their online booking platforms seem not to be working or jammed.
A passenger who did not want his name mentioned said a week ago, he bought a ticket for N50, 000 but today, it is being sold for N60, 000-N70, 000.
Another passenger who booked his flight earlier said he paid as low as N26, 000.
“Those we came onboard the flight together from Abuja said they paid N60,000, from the look of things the fares may go up to N80,000”.
Some persons who call themselves protocol officers are making brisk business helping passengers to get tickets for a fee.
Some passengers alleged that these groups of people connive with airline staff to horde tickets and later dispose off at exorbitant price.
Another problem passengers are also facing is flight delays. Many have suffered delays up to 9 hours like Mr. Jackson Lekan Ojo a security expert based in Port-Harcourt.
According to Mr. Ojo, the Aerocontractor propeller aircraft that was supposed to pick from the Warri airport on Friday 20/12/19 did not arrive until after 9 hours of waiting without information from the airline as to why they were being delayed.
“We booked online, we got to the airport as early as 7am, we got to the desk and we were told that we may not go today because they suspended a flight yesterday and they flight that was coming was coming to pick Lagos bound passengers”.
“I had to go to the desk to find out if we were going to have flight delay, there was no announcement made, no consultation at all, it was only when I had to give N1, 000 to somebody at the desk in aero, he now said, Oga, am not sure if you people will leave the airport today until 4pm. The worst thing is that, there was no single announcement, no interaction, nothing for us to know the reason why they delayed it”.
On passenger traffic this yuletide, the Airport Manager, MMIA, Lagos, Mrs. Victoria Shinaba says “departure is reducing and arrival is increasing”.
Shinaba who is also the Manager South-West Airports, said the management had put measures in place to ensure passengers comfort with the high volume of passenger traffic currently being experienced across airports especially at internationals airports.
“We are equal to the task, the airport is cool, we are not sweating and the passengers are getting their bags early, you can see the security officers are not harassing anybody, so it is cool and passenger facilitation has been fantastic and this will be sustained by FAAN”.
