RE: New Virgin Atlantic Route
It used to be that passengers flew to Lagos and connected through to the main centres – Port Harcourt, Abuja, Warri and so on for the oil and places like Kano for other business.
However a lot of European expats expressed concern about the safety of Nigerian airlines. They are collectively the Cubana of Africa, only worse by all accounts. There were also reports of big difficulties connecting through LOS due to corruption.
A friend of mine went out about 5 years ago – going through immigration, he handed his passport over. “One minute, sir.” The chap walked off, then someone else came back to him and said “may I see your passport please”.
“No, your colleague has it”
“One minute please sir”
“Sir, we do not have your passport. You cannot enter the country without one, unless you pay a fee”
So my friend peeled out the greenbacks and his passport seemed to matertialise out of thin air… Obviously, this bribe was on top of the usual entrance fee.
Solution to all these problems:
Reduce LOS frequences and start serving ABV and PHC and even Kano.