For eight months, an Abuja-based travel agency (they do not wish to be named) has struggled to get its refund of N920,808 from Dana Air, a Nigerian airline, after its operation licence was suspended by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in April.

The managing director of the agency, who spoke with FIJ on Monday, said that the tickets were for seven clients who wanted to take a trip in April.

She said that these people’s flights were cancelled on the day of the trip and they had to rebook them with Air Peace, another airline, for the next available flight because the trip was important to them.

“We booked the ticket for a group of seven passengers and seeing that the flight got cancelled on the day of the trip, we had to rebook the group for the next available flight on Air Peace for the same onward and return date, as the trip was very important to them,” the managing director told FIJ.

READ MORE: ‘I Want My Money’ — Customers Challenge Weak NCAA Statement After Dana Air’s Deadline Miss

The booking tickets revealed that all the passengers were billed to fly from Abuja to Owerri on April 23 and return on April 26. These tickets were paid for on April 16 and 19, just a few days before the NCAA suspension was imposed.

Receipts of the money paid to Dana Air.

The company’s representative said that they had reached the Dana Air multiple times but after some communication exchange, the airline stopped responding.

“We were affected by the suspension of their airline in April. Following that, we have reached out to the airline a couple of times and after a while, they stopped responding to us,” she said.

“Our money with them is an outstanding of N920,808.”

READ MORE: Toothless? NCAA’s 2-Week Refund Deadline Missed by Dana Air

When FIJ called Kingsley Ezenwa, the spokesperson of Dana Air, on Wednesday, after talking about what steps customers who wanted a refund from the airline could take, he said he was not commenting officially and anyone who wanted a refund should write to him or the airline.

“If you want me to respond to your enquiries, I will respond to them officially. Let the person write to me or the official channel of Dana Air, and I will help push the letter to the appropriate quarters. But if you want to advise the person normally, take your grievance to the NCAA, send it to their complaints department, and the issue will be resolved. It is not a media thing,” Ezenwa told FIJ.

FIJ has documented how Dana Air has maintained a growing debt profile featuring customers’ refunds after the ban on its operations.

The NCAA failed to enforce the refund timeline it gave the airline, and a new resolution proposed NG Eagle, a new airline, as a new party involved in processing the refunds for Dana customers.
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