A week after foreign flights resumed on Lagos and Abuja routes, international air travel has gone chaotic. Not only have fares increased by more than 200 per cent on some routes, seats are either not available or flights fail to keep to schedules. In some countries, like the United Kingdom, the pre-boarding mandatory coronavirus tests are not readily available, forcing airlines not to airlift booked passengers.
Some airlines have more passengers on some routes than Nigerian rules allow, and too few passengers on other routes for the carriers to embark on economically viable flights. Where excess is the case, airlines reschedule passengers’ flights to observe the maximum of the 200-persons-per-flight rule; and where passengers are fewer than the number needed to achieve economic viability, airlines cancel flights to the agony of customers.
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The protocols also state that each Nigeria-bound passenger must have COVID-19 test certificate showing negative status and an online payment for another test on arrival in Nigeria.
A check on latest airfares at the weekend showed increment across airlines. As of yesterday, some of the approved airlines had not resumed operations. Few of the operating carriers were still not regular and cancelling flights. British Airways, Emirates, Ethiopian Airline, Middle East Airline and Virgin Atlantic were regular but expensive.
Credit: The Guardian
