Mr Obi Mbanuzuo, Accountable Manager of Dana Air, says domestic airlines had lost over N360 billion due to Coronavirus and still counting because no one can say when the crisis will be over.

Mbanuzuo said this in Lagos on Monday while calling for government’s assistance for survival of domestic airlines.

”There charges, fees, allowances, salaries, aircraft leases, taxes all pending and over 100 aircrafts parked nationwide without generating a dime.

“The Value Added Tax (VAT) which contributes to the high cost of airfares is yet to be removed.

“These are the issues and the government needs to seriously consider helping airlines to survive this trying time,” he said.

Revealing plans by Dana to resume flights, Mbanuzuo said the Airline it will keep the middle seats in all its aircraft empty upon resumption of flights, in line with the social distancing guideline on COVID-19.

”Majority of our aircraft are configured with mainly three seats in a row, on either side of the aisle, so when we resume flights anytime soon, we will keep the middle seats empty so passengers can sit on the window and aisle seats to ensure some physical distancing onboard all our flights.

”This is just to give our guests some sense of security about their health and well-being when flying with us immediately after the pandemic.

“It will be for some time, while we continue to review feedback from our guests on their thoughts, but we believe it is what customers might like to see.

”Our first concern is the safety and well-being of our staff and customers and we have made firm arrangements to ensure that our thorough cleaning and disinfection programme continues.

“We are taking this seriously as we do not know how long this will last, ” he said.