Dana,Associated Air Grounding Leads To Air Fare Hike

Passengers were, yesterday, dazed at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA2 and the General Aviation Terminal, GAT, Terminal 1 as airline operators increased airfares astronomically.

For instance a 55-minutes flight to Abuja attracted between N22, 000 and N26, 000 in the economy class depending on how early a prospective passenger bought the ticket.

Before the clampdown on Dana Airlines and Associated Air, the tickets were sold for between N18, 000 and N20, 000.

First Nation Airways that resumed flights recently after closing shop for about 14 months charged N25, 500 to Abuja while Aero collected N22, 500.

Some passengers, who spoke on the development, lamented that the  operators were using the opportunity of the crisis in the industry to exploit hapless travellers.

One of the passengers, Mr. Wisdom Clark said the situation was unfortunate and pathetic, stressing that in a country where the economy was going down, airlines were still charging exorbitant fares