Yuletide: NAIA records low passenger traffic on Christmas Eve

…As fare skyrockets Against all predictions, the Nigerian airports at eve of Christmas recorded a drop in flow of passengers and aircraft movement on the eve of Christmas, especially at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. According to Daily Times check on Monday 24th of December, booking and check-in counters of all the airlines were very scanty. Records also show that only Air Peace, Max Air and Arik Air counters were a bit busy while others like Dana, Aero, Overland, Azman and others were having little patronage. The Station Manager of Azman Airline, Mr Abdullahi Saroke, said that highest traffic was recorded in the last two days, adding that eve of Christmas was not always busy especially if it was the beginning of the week. Saroke said the traffic was heavy on Friday, Saturday and Sunday when most airlines recorded upsurge and had full flights. He further said that many airlines were carrying half load on many routes as at Monday morning, adding that Max Air had only two full flights to Maiduguri and Yola. In his words, max air has been carrying full load since Friday to all destinations but as at this morning, we only had full flights to Yola and Maiduguri today but in and out of Abuja and Lagos has been half load. Staff of one of the airlines who pleaded anonymity, revealed that Friday, Saturday and Sunday were the peak days of the season. He said that all Arik flights for the last three days were fully booked while its flights for Monday were not full. Our reporter however, discovered that the air fare has been doubled by the entire domestic airline in the last three days compared to what they were charging about few weeks ago. Price list of the various airlines revealed that they now charge between N36,000 and N70,000 on economy and N70,000 to N90,000 on business class depending on the time and destination. Air fare on these routes charged by various airlines before now ranges from N19,000 to N41,000 depending on the airline and time of booking. Idu Jude, Abuja