How Irate passengers damaged Dana Air counters in Lagos

There was commotion in the early hours of Thursday at the new domestic terminal of the Lagos Airport aka MMA2 when passengers booked on Dana Air engaged in wanton destruction of facilities.

The passengers were miffed over poor communication on the part of Dana Air on indefinite suspension of its operations by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The passengers, numbering 100, expressed reservations on the absence of personnel of the suspended carrier at the departure hall to brief them on the next line of action over possible transfer to other partner airlines or refund of their ticket fares.

While security officials of the terminal manager : Bi- Courtney Aviation Services Limited made frantic efforts to calm some of the passengers , other snatched the glass windows of the airline’s counters.

With no solution in sight, some of the passengers went berserk disrupting activities at the departure hall of the terminal.

But Dana Air management said its operations have been suspended by the NCAA for full operational audit.

In a statement by its spokesman, Kingsley Ezenwa, the carrier said in the face if the difficult times, it was reaching out to passengers by collecting information to credit their accounts for ticket refunds.

Ezenwa said: “We have sent them emails to write to us with their bank details and they will be credited within the earliest. It’s a difficult time but we will do the right thing.”

On the hammer of the civil regulator, he said :” We wish to assure the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority that we are fully ready and committed to cooperating with them in the course of this audit and to also reassure our customers and partners that we are safe, efficient and reliable.

“The recent skyrocketing cost of Jet A1 at 830/litre, unavailability of forex, inflation are also contributory factors to this decision regrettably.

“We crave the understanding and patience of our customers, travel and business partners and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience our short absence from the market might cause.

“Our customer service team will continue to operate 24/7 to assist affected customers with necessary information on refunds and our offices will be open to all our existing partners.”