- Kwankwaso lauds Air Peace for Exceptional Service
- Why FAAN restricts cargo operations to designated areas, imposes N5000 non-compliant levy-Orah
- NAMA guarding against collision, airfield threat with SMR
- Virgin Atlantic posts strong load factor on Lagos route
- Nigeria, Brazil hold talks, initiate direct flight operations
Polls: Passengers response to Arik, Aero fare cut high
Many travellers are taking advantage of the fare cut introduced by Arik and Aero Contractors to travel to their wards to cast their votes in the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections slated for Saturday.
A visit to the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos showed that the airlines, particularly Arik has been making huge fortune from the promo fares, which is to encourage many people to travel to cast their votes.
Woleshadarenews saw three passengers armed with their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) on a queue waiting for the airlines to verify their cards, prior to the issuance of tickets to them.
One of the passengers, Ahmed Yusuf said he was travelling to Kano to cast his vote, while another, Ifeyinwa said she was travelling to Enugu for the exercise. The third person, Jimeta Ahmed said he was travelling to Kaduna.
Ahmed, who described himself as a close pal of a state governor in one of the North West States of Nigeria said he came briefly to Lagos for a business transaction.
Spokesman for Arik Air, Mr. Banji Ola told our correspondent, “People have been buying the promo ticket since it was launched on Monday. The response has been encouraging”.
On Monday, the two carriers introduced promo fares to encourage disenchanted electorates.
The airlines made the disclosure in separate statements issued by their spokespersons, Mr. Banji Ola and Mr. Chika Ubendu respectively on Monday in Lagos.
Nigerians are set to go to the polls on Feb. 23 to elect their President and National Assembly members after the election was rescheduled.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has also fixed March 9 for gubernatorial and state assembly polls.
Ubendu said the airline embarked on the promo as its own contribution to support Nigeria conduct successful elections and also to encourage the citizens to travel to where they can cast their votes.
According to him, Aero has decided to cut its fares by about 50 per cent to support Nigerians to travel without spending so much.
He said that this was an incentive to the citizens to carry out their civic responsibility during the elections.
Ubendu said effective Feb. 18, Aero would begin sale of tickets from N16,000 for travels between Feb. 21 and Feb. 25 on all her routes to encourage Nigerians to travel to their various destinations in order to cast their votes.
Ola, said the N16, 000 Fly to Vote promotion was to encourage Nigerians to travel to their respective wards to cast their votes during the elections.
“The N16, 000 promotional fare is the one-way ticket cost to any domestic destination on Arik Air’s network and customers must present a valid Permanent Voters’ Card (PVC) at the point of purchase and at check in to be eligible to fly.
