Some assets of Dana Air were on Thursday, July 21, 2022, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), Lagos, vandalised by aggrieved passengers who could not travel with the airline as scheduled due to the suspension slammed on the carrier by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA.
This is as the airline said that it has commenced the operational audit as directed by the regulatory agency, saying that it was fully cooperating with NCAA to ensure quick return to flight services.
At the MMA2 on Thursday, some of the passengers who had hitherto booked online with the airline to travel out of Lagos, expressed surprise and disappointment with the grounding of the carrier.
Some of them said that they were not informed of the suspension, while there was no text or email message to that effect from the airline.
Mostly affected were the passengers on Lagos-Abuja, Lagos-Port Harcourt, and other early morning routes out of Lagos.
Some of them were seen making frantic efforts to buy another airline’s tickets out of Lagos even at exorbitant rates, but failed.
When Daily Independent got to MMA2 where Dana Air operates from, some of the passengers were still stranded.
One of them who identified herself as Mrs. Bimpe Adewusi said she had a 10a.m appointment in Abuja on Thursday and was disappointed that she could not travel as planned.
She also expressed anger that none of the airline’s counter staff was on ground to attend to the stranded passengers. She said: ‘This is not the first time I would be disappointed by Dana Air.
I was at the airport early morning today (Thursday) to take a flight to Abuja for an appointment I have today at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Like others, I could not travel as planned. “The pain is that I cannot go as planned.
Why will an airline not inform its clients of its challenge until they get to the airport? They are not even rebooking us on another flight. We cannot also get refund for our money. I paid N57,000 for this flight, yet I can’t travel.”
Meanwhile, a statement by Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa, the Communications Manager, Dana Air, said it has commenced the operational audit as directed by NCAA.
The statement also said that Dana Air was cooperating with the NCAA to ensure its return to flight operations.
The statement added: “Operational audits are regulatory and airlines are required to suspend their operations when the regulator calls for it and we are confident that having been successful in previous audits, we will come back even stronger and better.
“The audit is also an opportunity for us to prove once again and reassure our guests, clients, and partners that we remain strong, safe, efficient, and reliable.”
Ezenwa said that as an airline, the carrier was not insulated from the multiple challenges airlines and the aviation industry are grappling with daily.
He mentioned some of the challenges to include the recent skyrocketing cost of aviation fuel at N830 per litre, unavailability of forex, ground handling services, inflation, and multiple taxation, among other operational challenges.
He said that the domestic airlines had made frantic efforts to communicate these challenges to the flying public and the government in the past.
He, however, regretted that the “short stay off the market remains painful and heartbreaking for us, our customers, clients and partners, we remain very hopeful and very confident of our position,” assuring that its offices would remain open to passengers, travel partners, and others throughout the period.
He stated that the airline’s customers with unused tickets have also been advised to apply for refunds by sending an email to contact@ flydanaair.com with their details and assured that it would try to resolve the issue in a timely manner.
NCAA had on Wednesday night suspended Dana Air’s Transport Licence (ATL) and Air Operator Certificate (AOC) indefinitely.
NCAA in a statement by Capt. Musa Nuhu said that the suspension was made pursuant to section 35(2), 3(b), and (4) of the Civil Aviation Act, 2006 and Part 1.3.3.3(a)(1) of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs), 2015.
Nuhu said that the decision to suspend the airline was the outcome of a financial and economic health audit carried out on it and the findings of an investigation conducted on the airline’s flight operations recently, which revealed that Dana Airlines is no longer in a position to meet its financial obligations and to conduct safe flight operations.
Source: Independent
