Aero: Travellers Face Bleak Easter Over Flight Shortage

Intending air travellers within the country during the Easter holiday period may be in for a tough time because of a looming scarcity of flights to different destinations following the suspension of operations by Aerocontractors Airlines, the second largest domestic airline by passenger traffic.
Internal labour crises have left Aero grounded for almost two weeks. The airline’s management is battling almost 1,300 employees over alleged poor condition of service among other related issues.
The development has had an adverse effect on domestic air travel, which is currently dominated by Arik Air and Aero, in terms of large route network.
Already, passengers are facing hard times getting seats on the South-South and South-East routes operated by only Aero and Arik. Destinations on these routes are Benin, Calabar, Uyo, Owerri and Enugu.

Other domestic carriers such as Dana Air, IRS Airlines, Medview Airlines and Chanchagi Airlines operate from Lagos to Abuja and a few cities in the North.
Medview operates flights to only one South-South destination, Port Harcourt.
Intending passengers to the South-South and South-East regions were not getting seats easily on the available flights.
At the Lagos airport, majority of the intending passengers were forced to book for flights two days ahead, a departure from the former situation where they would get to the airport before buying tickets on their travel days.
Further findings revealed that passengers at Benin, Uyo, Calabar, Enugu and Owerri airports were also scrambling to get tickets. It was learnt that majority of them had been forced to postpone their flights.