Passengers besiege Dana Air counters in Lagos, seek tickets refund

Scores of Dana Air passengers, on Thursday, besieged the Airline’s counters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport private terminal two, otherwise known as MM2, to demand refunds following its inability to travel after ticket purchases.
The confusion was caused by the indefinite suspension slammed on the airline by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for alleged financial incapacity and other issues.
On July 20, NCAA had in a statement announced that the suspension of the airline would become effective from Wednesday midnight.
Many of the passengers who were billed to travel on the airline tickets were caught up in the action leaving them with the option of buying fresh tickets from other available airlines in operation.
The passengers, numbering over 70, expressed reservations on the absence of personnel of the suspended carrier at the departure hall.
The passengers had expected the Airline to brief them on the next line of action over possible transfer to other partner airlines or refund of their ticket fares.
One of the passengers who identified him as Franklin Johnson said that Dana representatives ought have stood at their counter to attend to passengers.
According to him, we came this morning in anticipation of flying to our various destinations but we are told Dana airline had been suspended.
“The management should have reached out to all passengers or arranged with other airlines to take its passengers.
Security officials of the terminal manager, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, made frantic efforts to calm some of the passengers.
All efforts made by the airline representatives to appeal to the passengers to remain calm were rebuffed as they insisted on collecting their money.
The image maker of Dana Air, Mr Kingsley Ezenwa, cited how the airline had reached out to the passengers on the matter.
He said the message was on the need for them to send their account details to enable the airline commence the refund of their money.
“While you are making refunds the passengers should realize the fact that there are rules guiding such action as the process for the refund and for the passengers to get their money back may take two or three days and not immediately.
“We have been engaging the passengers through all social platforms.
The airline management had earlier informed passengers of flight cancellation saying: “Please be informed that all our flights have been cancelled due to an ongoing operational audit.
“We sincerely apologize for any inconveniences this may cause our customers and travel partners.
” Our customer service will operate 24/7 to assist passengers with necessary information,” he said.