By Chinedu Eze Air travellers have condemned the N2000 fee imposed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on every vehicle picking passengers from arrivals at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. Vehicle owners who come to pick up passengers at arrivals are charged N2000 before they could access the arrival gate. The passengers who spoke to THISDAY described the fee as outrageous and noted that it is only at Nigerian airports that travellers leaving the airport are made to pay in order to be conveyed out of the airport.
Some of them told THISDAY that travellers are already paying too many taxes and charges, noting that these payments are higher than what obtains in other airports across the world. “The major issue for me is that the airports don’t look like where so much money is collected from the passengers. They are largely deplorable and everywhere you go airport workers are begging you money.
I believe that the management of the airport overlooks that begging part and that is why it has persisted. “You come into the airport all these security people will be harassing you. They ask you to open your bags in the wrong place because at that place they are at the entrance they can’t be asking you to open your bags.
They force first time travellers to part with money. In fact, everything about our airport is hostility everywhere. “Last time I travelled, my wife came to pick me they stopped her immediately she entered the arrival area.