Domestic airlines operating at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) in Lagos seemed to be having a bumper harvest as passenger traffic at the terminals surged by over 30 per cent.
Daily Sun visited both the local and international terminals of the airport Thursday to discover a huge turn out of passengers, particularly in the morning and afternoon schedules trying to connect other destinations within and outside the country from the MMA airports.
A top official of one of the indigenous airlines told Daily Sun that Christmas and New Year periods are usually peak periods for airlines in Nigeria but said the airline had prepared for it.
“The Yuletide period (Christmas and New Year) in Nigeria is like summer time in Europe and America where airlines have a lot of passengers flying. It has been quite challenging but it has been good for the passengers,” said Russel Lee Foon, Acting Managing Director of Aero Contractors on the increased number of passengers flying airplanes this Yuledite. “We have adjusted to cope with the tide. For us it has been alright because we prepared for it,” he added.
It was, however, learnt that given the huge traffic, government and regulatory agencies had stepped up measures to boost security at the airports amidst fears over the ability of some of the domestic airlines to match the growing passenger demand with the fewer numbers of aircraft in their fleet while at the same time adhering to safety regulations.
One passenger, Teresa Udowana, who said she was coming in from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, en route Atlanta, USA, decried the slow process of checking in passengers at the various counters by airlines. She, however, commended the improved facilities at both the local and domestic terminals of the Lagos airport, urging regulators to step up efforts to ensure passengers spend less time checking in at airline and immigration counters.
Remi Ladigbolu, spokesman for Bi-Courtney Limited, operators of the MMA2, in a telephone interview with Daily Sun yesterday said the firm had invested in the requisite equipment and personnel that ensured it could cope with any rise in passengers at any time.
“Whether one aircraft is flying one passenger or 20 airlines are flying 200,000 passengers in a day, what we have done is to put the right facilities and personnel on ground to ensure hitch-free operations for passengers and airlines,” said Ladigbolu. He, however, said statistics could not be immediately provided on the passengers using the airport in the last two to three weeks.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for a domestic airline who would not want to be named said it could have risen by about 30 per cent compared to the preceding year.
“Some dates had already been fully booked online in some of the airlines, particularly in the opening two weeks of December. There must have been a leap by about 30 per cent,” said the airline official.
He said more Nigerians from abroad made reservations than ever to fly out of the Lagos airport to the South East and South-South airports than was witnessed in previous years.
And one factor that has been held responsible for the upsurge is the advent of online bookings deployed by travel agents and airlines, which also comes with cheaper fares for passengers who opt to pay online days or weeks ahead of schedule flight dates than paying at counters.
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