As the Easter season peaks, domestic airlines are already playing host to heavy traffic as the season begins today with many travellers thronging the airports.
At the Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal two (MMA2) on Thursday, both the departure and arrival halls were beehive of activities as passengers were seen on long queues at Aero, Dana Air and Medview Air ticketing counters.
Some passengers were also spotted on queues at the counters for ‘future tickets’ where some of the intending travellers told BusinessDay that they were ‘booking and paying for tickets to travel over the weekend to avoid the rush’.
Apart from Aero, Medview and Dana Air which are the major airlines that seoperate at MMA2, a host of passengers were also seen unusually in front of FirstNation Airways counters as well Wakanow.com counters.
Wakanow.com is a ticketing, destination and holiday selling company with two counters at MMA2.
In the same vein, the departure and arrival halls of the General Aviation Terminal (GAT) where Arik Air with more than 20 aircraft operates was also filled to the brim.
Many of the passengers, who spoke to BusinessDay, were travelling to Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Kaduna, Enugu and Owerri.
“I am not travelling today but I came to buy tickets for four members of my family. I have tried to book Aero economy online to no avail. The morning seats are fully booked so I am here to see if I can still get cheap tickets’, Abiola Eyiwumi said.
Another passenger simply identified as Timothy said he purchased his return ticket for N46,000 (Lagos-Abuja-Lagos) from across Aero counter, noting that he could not afford to wait because of some business appointments he had to still meet before the weekend.
Many of the passengers are expressing fears over fare increase, delays and sometimes outright cancellation of flight during the period because of high demand for capacity.
Although, the fares were not hiked as at Thursday as it varies from airline to airline and destination to destination, there is the feeling that a one way ticket across the counter may be as high as N25,000 or N26,000 especially to places like Abuja and Port-Harcourt.
In another development, The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on Thursday assured airport users of adequate security at the nation’s airports.
The assurance is contained in a statement signed by Yakubu Dati, the general manager, public affairs of FAAN.
Dati said that necessary operational and security measured had been put in place at all the airports.
“The management of FAAN wants to assure members of the public, especially passengers and airline operators, that necessary operational and security measures have been put in place at all our airports.
“The measures put in place are to ensure hitch-free passage of passengers and cargo during the forthcoming Easter holidays.
“Members of the Bomb Detection Unit of the Nigeria Police Force have also been deployed at the airports to complement the effort of our aviation security personnel at the security screening points”, he said.
Sade Williams
