COVID-19: Concerns as Nigerian airlines, others face fresh setback The Punch
Published 25 July 2021
Some stakeholders in the aviation sector have expressed concerns over the fresh setback brought on by the Delta variant of COVID-19, which has been confirmed in Nigeria by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
According to the NCDC, the Delta variant has been detected in over 90 countries and is expected to spread to more countries.
Air Peace recently announced the suspension of its Lagos-Johannesburg flights due to the surge of COVID-19 in South Africa. The airline said the suspension was in line with the Federal government’s travel restriction.
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Chinedu Eze
Many Nigerians have inadvertently booked and paid for flights on fraudulent airline sites, which are either cloned or copied to look like that of the airlines by fraudsters.
In fact, it is projected that air travellers may have lost about N2 billion on such fake sites in the last five years, but as airlines strive to inform travellers about such possible sites, some continue to fall victims, especially now Internet fraud is on the increase.
Spokesman of Air Peace, Stanley Olisa told THISDAY that there was a time some fraudsters manipulated the airline’s website and travellers were making payments into it.
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This, they attributed to the growing insecurity in different parts of the country.
Those who spoke to THISDAY insisted that high airfares could be a factor, but insecurity was also identified as major reason. They noted that even at the peak of high cost of tickets in May and April, passenger traffic was still high.
THISDAY learnt that some airlines that resumed flights to some destinations in the north had to withdraw, while the south-east airports, which used to be lucrative routes after Lagos and Abuja have recorded reduction in passenger movement.
Head of Communications, Dana Air, Kingsley Ezenwa, told THISDAY that there is slight reduction in the airline’s load factor in its flights to Enugu, Owerri and Port Harcourt.