HOW AVIATION INDUSTRY AVERTED N13BN LOSS IN ONE DAY BY SUSPENDING PLANNED INDUSTRIAL ACTION

I know there were areas they were not treated well, but they could have exhausted all other possibilities,” he said.

Sanusi also remarked that whatever the airlines might have lost in monetary terms, passengers would have lost more but such losses cannot be quantified.

“Imagine if you are booked for an interview and you are hoping to get there by air and there is no flight? Imagine you are scheduled to sign a contract and you have no plane to take you there. There is no price tag to such losses. Yes, people rush to estimate everything in naira and kobo but there are things passengers lost that cannot be regained but airlines can regain what they lost. The passengers would have suffered so much. The airlines know what they would have lost. AON knew what they would lose. If you go to the handling companies they will tell you what they would lose,” Sanusi said.

THISDAY gathered that high demand of flights pushed up airfares that the first airlines that announced they would not continue with the planned strike sold tickets as high as N90, 000 to N100, 000 for one hour tickets.

However, a major stakeholder in the industry told THISDAY that the airlines could have shut down to drive home their demand, noting that people are no more travelling because of the high cost of tickets.

“Nigerian airlines are losing passengers to high prices. Those who are travelling now are those who bought their tickets before. People are not buying tickets now because it is too costly,” the stakeholder said.