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By Louis Ibah
Adverse weather conditions occasioned by harmattan haze is wreaking severe havoc on domestic airlines’ operations in Nigeria, resulting in huge financial losses, an operator told Daily Sun.
In the last 10 days, four of Nigeria’s local commercial airlines – Dana Air, Arik Air, Air Peace and Medview Airlines – have had to terminate most of their flights with passengers either rescheduled or refunded their fares. While hundreds of passengers who turn up at airports across the country continue to groan under the difficulty posed by the harmattan haze, which mars their ability to fly as scheduled, the airlines on the other hand are bemoaning their losses estimated to have so far run into about N600 million.
A top airline official who spoke to Daily Sun put the blame on the doorstep of the Nigerian government that has failed to invest in the requisite navigational equipment that can enable pilots land and take off aircraft in Nigerian airports at low visibility conditions.
“I regret to say this; we are losing millions of naira daily due to this bad weather and I tell you that if NAMA has the right navigational equipment, there is no way we will still be cancelling or delaying flights in Nigeria by 2017 because of harmattan haze,” said the official.
When asked to quantify the losses, he said, “it’s difficult to state the exact amount but there is no way the airline industry would not be losing more than N600 milion so far this December alone. Any day we witness flight disruptions, I am sure we can’t lose anything less than N100 million.
“It is a very agonising and frustrating situation because in the last three days, we had a situation where some Nigerians who can’t find the fuel to drive home in their vehicles come to the airports only to meet a crowd of people who cannot also fly because the airports lack the facilities to allow aircraft land under the harmattan weather. Nothing can be more frustrating to holiday makers like this. The airlines are losing money and Nigerians are suffering,” he added.
Spokesman for Medview Airline, Mr. Obuie Oyibotha, yesterday explained that airlines had to opt for cancellation and delays on flights for safety reasons, appealing for passengers’ understanding.
“We share your pains for our inability at the material time to fly you to your destinations at the appointed time,” said Oyebotha in a statement. “The safety of passengers and crew come first before any other considerations, and in such situations, delays and rescheduling become inevitable,” he added.
