By Francis Ogwo
Airfares for domestic flights are expected to increase as the Federal Government reopens airports for domestic flights after an assessment of its readiness to restart after a shutdown due to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.
This was contained in an announcement by the National Coordinator, Presidential Task Force on Covid-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, who said domestic operations are allowed to open once there was compliance with existing international and local guidelines on Covid-19.
According to him, passengers must be at the airports at least three hours before flights to observe all the health protocols put in place by the airport authority.
“You must observe social distance, wear a face mask, wash your hands, sanitize it, your luggage must be disinfected, temperature taking and so on.”
He pleaded with the passengers to comply with the laid down rules for their safety and that of others.
Boss Mustapha, while responding to questions on likely increase in airfares, said with the reality on the ground, passengers should expect a hike in airfares and other essential services at the airports while adding that with the increase in Passenger Service Charge (PSC), by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), by 100%, it was evident that the old fares would no longer be applicable including that of other government aviation agencies and other private businesses in the industry.
He noted that the upward review would guarantee better services from the airlines.
Boss Mustapha emphasized that the industry had been badly affected by the pandemic with the following drop in fortunes and revenue for more than three months and stressed that the public would have to feel the pulse.
“And there is going to be a maintenance of social distancing, a bit of it inside the aircraft; if an aircraft has a capacity of 150 people, they might now be restricted to about a 100 or 75. Flying comes with a component of aviation fuel is one of it, salaries for the pilots and the cabin crew is one of it, services that are paid for to the aviation industry institutions. Every time you see a plane take off, there are attendant costs to that, who will bear the cost, it will be shared, the passengers will take part of it, the business owners will take part of the cost.”
“Because when you run at a loss, profit is the motivation if going into a business isn’t it? Flying is not a social service, they will find a way of recouping their money, we must be prepared for this cost.
“As to whether the government will help the industry, I believe the aviation industry is one of the industries that is hard hit by this Covid-19 because it is an industry that is designed for moving people up and down and for the last 3 months they have not done anything.”
The SGF also stated that the stimulus package by the government would benefit the industry especially with the biting effect of the pandemic.
“So I think as part of the intervention, government either through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or the stimulus package in the economic sustainability plan of the N2.3 trillion, I believe that the aviation industry would have a part of that, how it is going to be administered, the minister for aviation would be in a better position to explain how that would be administered.”
Recall that so many questions have been raised by health experts on how safe the airports could be for flights to restart. There was with a subsequent dry run demonstration at the Lagos and Abuja airports Saturday last week.
The assessment was okayed by members of the Task Force who scored the health safety measures put in place by the industry to contain any spread of the pandemic as satisfactory.
