Air Peace, Arik, Dana commence operations with LAG-ABJ flights

After three months of COVID-19 lockdown, some domestic airline operators include Air Peace, Arik Air and DANA Air have resumed operations at Lagos and Abuja airports.

In fact, Air Peace and Arik Air have commenced operation from Lagos to Abuja on Wednesday, while DANA Air has announced the resumption of its flight services today (Thursday) with three daily flights from Lagos to Abuja and back while the date for the addition of Port Harcourt and Owerri will be announced later.

Although, it was observed that there had been a significant increase in airfares, as airlines operators reduced passengers capacity by 50 per cent.

It was, however, gathered that the airlines raised their fares in all classes of tickets for one-hour flights from Lagos to Abuja.

Air Peace sold its Economy-Flexi Domestic plan for N33,001 for a one way Lagos-Abuja trip, while the business class ticket was sold for N80,000.

Arik Air’s economy plan was sold for N29,189, while the business class was N78,532 for a one-way Lagos to Abuja trip.

Commenting on the commencement of flight operations at the Lagos airport, Director of Aviation Security of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Usman Sadiq said that adequate security measures had been put in place at the airport.

Mr Sadiq said the government had also increased the security manpower at the airport for effective measures.

“There is an effective synergy between the various security agencies across airports in the country to tackle the numerous security breach incidents.

“All security agencies are on ground to ensure law and order at the airports, and today, we can see that Nigerians are well behaved from what was demonstrated,” he said.

He also expressed gratitude to the management team of FAAN for their support in carrying out their responsibilities.

“I am excited to add that the highest level of the authority’s management, an enviable leadership, commitment and support, has been displayed again and again in an unequivocal manner.

“For this, we are grateful and rededicated to achieving the core mission of developing and profitably managing customer-oriented airport facilities for safe, secure and efficient carriage of passengers and goods at world-class standards of quality,” Mr Sadiq said.

Speaking on the preparedness of his airline, the Chief Operating Officer of Dana Air Obi Mbanuzuo said, “Dana Air is ready to fly safely again from the 9th of July. We have worked round the clock with the NCAA to achieve this safe resumption of flights and we are introducing other initiatives soon in line with the present realities and the need to minimize contacts at the airport.

“We have disinfected all our aircraft, provided all our staff with the recommended Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), alcohol-based hand sanitizers have been made available at our check-in, boarding gates and onboard the aircraft for guests and we have an optimized cleaning protocol in place as recommended by the World Health Organisation, (WHO), and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). We have also created a boarding strategy which will give our passengers some sense of safety onboard our aircraft.

”We are distinctly positioned to reduce the impact of the concerns you might have, starting from proper maintenance schedule, pre-flight cleaning and boarding, to in-flight service and disembarkation — all aspects of our flights have been optimized for the safety and well-being of our guests”

”To stay ahead, our guests are advised to book their tickets online, use our self-service at MMA2 or download the Dana Air app for booking and reservation.”