Passengers at various terminals of the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, headed for destinations on the West Coast of Africa and within Nigeria, were yesterday having difficulty booking and boarding flights, following the crowding of the departure halls and airlines’ online portals, as the Christmas holiday rush takes-off.
While some resorted to rescheduling their flights, spending more money in the process, others decided to wait out the long and slow queues, hoping to board eventually.
Some passengers who spoke to our reporter said they experienced congestion when they attempted to book online and that this caused a slowdown of flight bookings.
When our reporter visited the MMA2 and the General Aviation Terminal, a lot of passengers were seen waiting and discussing the travel glitch.
Some angry passengers who spoke to our reporter, said airline officials told them to wait, while they tried to resolve the online network challenges but did not specify what the problem was or when they would be resolved.
Said on passenger, “It is very difficult to make bookings online since this festive period. I have been trying to book a flight to Abuja for two days now, but I couldn’t because the network is really bad. I am really disappointed that this is happening because if the airlines had made adequate preparations for the yuletide season, this won’t be happening.
BusinessDay also learnt that two airlines cancelled their flights for technical reasons but did not explain further.
Our reporter also observed a rapid increase in flights to and from Abuja, Port-Harcourt and Enugu, with the Abuja route seeing more activity than others.
Our reporter also observed that while Arik Air was charging the sum of N33, 075 to Abuja, Dana Airlines charged N22,500; Medview N24,500. First Nation Airlines charged the lowest fare, at N20,000.
Some frequent fliers said they had observed a 20percent increase in both domestic and regional air fares this season.
Our reporter observed also that passengers tended to pack bigger boxes and carrier bags than in the off-season.
Officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) told our reporter that they were taking more security measures this Christmas season.
These measures included the deployment of the Bomb Detection Unit of the Nigeria Police at various locations in and around the airport, we were told.
Yakubu Dati, FAAN spokesperson, said the deployment of the anti-bomb officials would complement the “efforts of our Aviation Security Personnel at the security screening points.”
It would be recalled that the authority had earlier advised air passengers to make early arrangements for their travels and to leave home early on their travel dates, in order to complete their boarding procedures in good time.
Ifeoma Okeke
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