The travel ban announced by most West African countries due to the spread of COVID-19 has begun to take its toll on carriers in the sub region as airlines operating in the region have started reducing frequencies along the west coast.
Ghana’ s leading carrier, Africa World Airlines, AWA, which operates the most frequency on the Lagos-Accra route, has reduced its flight operation to 16 weekly flights. This is just as the airline said it is suspending its operation to Cote D’Ivoire and Sierra Leone.
The airline said: “Further to the instructions issued by the Government of Cote D’Ivoire and the Government of Sierra Leone, Africa World Airlines will be suspending operations to Abidjan and Freetown with effect from 20MAR20 and 22MAR20 respectively.
Passengers on cancelled flights will receive notification of the cancellation via their original booking channel, and may either rebook to a future date or seek a refund.
AWA continues to operate flights from Accra to Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi, Wa, Lagos, Abuja and Monrovia at this time.
Also, Arik Air has temporary suspened flights to all its West Coast destinations effective Monday, March 23, 2020.
According to atqnews.com, the management of the airline said it took the decision after a careful analysis of the novel CoronaVirus Disease (COVID-19) which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air, Captain Roy Ilegbodu elaborated on the matter : “The safety and well-being of our personnel and valued customers are paramount at this critical time. We do not want to take chances and this is why we have taken this decision”.
The airline in a statement signed by its spokesman, Ola Banji, apologizes to customers whose travel plans may have been affected by the suspension of flights and promise to mitigate the effects by ensuring a prompt refund of tickets.
Furthermore, Nigeria’s largest carrier, Air Peace, has downsized its operations in response to the adverse effects of the pandemic, Coronavirus.
The airline said it took the decisive decision after an emergency meeting with its top management staff to review its operations in the face of the disease, which the World Health Organisation (W.H.O) has already declared as a global pandemic.
According to thetravelport.com.ng, the management also announced several measures aimed at addressing the adverse effects occasioned by the disease.
Mrs. Toyin Olajide, Chief operating officer, Air Peace, after the emergency meeting said the airline also took the decision to cut down its flights following a tremendous decline in passenger traffic and the need to cut costs.
She said: “Air Peace, as a result of the adverse effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on passenger traffic, has today taken the hard decision to downsize our flight operations in order to cut the mounting costs occasioned by the pandemic.”
She went on to say that as a result of this development, the airline will be suspending its operations to Dakar-Senegal and Monrovia-Liberia and cutting down its Freetown-Sierra leone operations and Banjul-Gambia operations to one flight a week.
She disclosed that the airline would also be reducing its operations into Accra from Lagos to just two flights daily and suspend its Abuja-Accra operations.
“On the domestic scene, we are reducing our frequencies while at the same time, restructuring our operations by deploying our hoppers to more airports.
“Our international operations into Dubai through Sharjah International airport shall be suspended from next week as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has shut its airports to nationals from other countries including but not limited to Nigeria,” she added.
