Passengers scared of taking local flight -lamented airlines officials

The crisis in the aviation industry may have taken a toll on activities at the local wings of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, as airline officials have lamented low patronage in the last few days.
Officials, who spoke in confidence to our correspondent on Monday, said passengers seemed to be expressing some sort of apathy towards air travel, stressing that passengers might have become scared of flying as a few of them have called in to cancel earlier bookings.
He said most aircrafts had flown to their destinations with fewer passengers on board.
An official of one of the major carriers in Lagos, told our correspondent that the airline had had to reschedule some of their flights in the last few weeks in order not to run at a total loss due to dwindling patronage.
She said, “Lately, activities have not been going on as usual; we have noticed a general reduction in patronage. At first, we chalked it up to the fact that the summer is over and people may be travelling less at this period; but further investigations have shown that a few customers seem to be a bit skeptical about air travels for the time being.
“Perhaps, this is as a result of the number of crashes or mishaps that have been recorded in the Nigerian airspace in the last few weeks. As a result of this, we have had to adjust our flying times in a few cases to ensure that we are able to accommodate more passengers while running fewer schedules. This is in an attempt to assist management to break even.