Airlines cut flights to Warri, Yola
By Wole Shadare and Yemi Adepetun
CITING the unrest in the Niger Delta region, Aero Contractors Airline, one of the six domestic airlines designated on international routes, has cancelled its afternoon flights on the Lagos-Warri-Port Harcourt route.
The cancellation took effect from Monday June 28, 2004.
In a letter notifying its numerous passengers, the airline deputy managing director, Captain Dapo Olumide, said: "Due to the persistent communal unrest in the Delta area, we have been experiencing a steady decline in the number of passengers patronising the service."
He explained that since 1995, Aero Contractors had been providing 200 seats daily between Warri and Port Harcourt, stressing that "our load factor on the route has reduced from 83 per cent in 2002 to 39 per cent in September 2003. As of May 2004, it further reduced to 21 per cent."
Also the Aviation Development Company (ADC) has cancelled its evening flights to Yola, Adamawa State due to the imposition of dawn to dusk curfew by the state government.
An official of ADC, Mrs. Ngozi Wellington confirmed the cancellation of the flight to Yola yesterday. She said the action was prompted by the curfew in the area.
Her words: "Yes, we have cancelled our evening flights to the area for sometime now because of the curfew."
Olumide said that the airline could not sustain the level of revenue loss any longer, adding that like most viable companies, it has obligation to its investors and customers alike.
Said he: "In order for us to maintain the same level of service, we must implement cost-saving measures that will reserve the tide. Two options were proposed. One was to increase airfares on the route in question, while the other (less painful) was to reduce capacity."
He said in the end, they decided to reduce capacity from 200 seats a day to 100. This, he reiterated, would be achieved by cancelling the least patronised of the two service offerings (morning versus afternoon flights).
Olumide added that while the airline was well aware that there are companies who preferred the afternoon flight, the fact remained that they only buy between two to eight tickets a day on the service, which does not even pay for fuel to take them there at the current prices.
The airline charges N18,376 to Warri with its Havellange-8 aircraft.
