Dana Air mulls flight resumption soon, plans to keep middle seats empty
Samson Echenim is business a.m. correspondent providing coverage for maritime, aviation, travels and hospitality. A former business correspondent at the Punch and Leadership newspapers, he has a vast experience in business reporting. Samson can be reached on samhapp2000@yahoo.com and +2348037363024
Nigerian airline, Dana Air says it plans to leave all its operational aircrafts middle seats empty when it resumes flights “anytime soon” in line with the social distancing guideline on Covid-19.
Obi Mbanuzuo, accountable manager of Dana, said the airline would commence this initiative when flights resume, maintain it for a while and listen to the feedback from the airline’s customers.
”Majority of our aircraft are configured with mainly three seats in a row, on either side of the aisle, so when we resume flights anytime soon, we will keep the middle seats empty so passengers can sit on the window and aisle seats to ensure some physical distancing onboard all our flights.
He said, ”This is just to give our guests some sense of security about their health and well-being when flying with us immediately after the pandemic and it will be for sometime, while we continue to review feedback from our guests on their thoughts, but we believe it what customers might like to see.
”Our first concern is the safety and well-being of our staff and customers and we have made firm arrangements to ensure that our thorough cleaning and disinfection program continues. We are taking this seriously as we do not know how long this will last.”
On the impact of Covid-19 on domestic airlines, Obi said, ”domestic airlines have lost over N360 billion to this pandemic and still counting. we do not know when it will be over.”
”Their charges, fees, allowances, salaries, aircraft leases, taxes all pending and over 100 aircraft parked nationwide without generating a dime. The VAT which contributes to the high cost of airfares is yet to be removed. These are the issues and the government needs to seriously consider helping airlines to survive this trying time.” he added