Open letter to Aero Contractors...

Dear Aero Contractors oga,

I travel between Abuja and Lagos frequently, sometimes as much as once a week. Before, I relied on Virgin Nigeria, but since their wobbles (literal and metaphorical), I have switched to you. I like flying Aero Contractors - the service on the plane is excellent. Your flight staff are pleasant and well trained. I like the fact that you serve cashew nuts as a snack - which I can eat - as well as cake - which I cannot. I really like the fact that you have been going for 50 years - it shows that a Nigerian company can thrive for decades if well managed. I also admire the way you have led the pack on e-commerce, driving online use of e-payments more than any other Nigerian company by offering huge discounts and pushing the price of a ticket to as low as N8000 per flight. Its all very good and highly commendable.

My one gripe is the queue at Abuja domestic terminal (see camera-snap above). You are not blessed with a good spot, it is true. That dark corner makes creating an orderly queuing system a challenge. The use of the rope-divider (dividing those who have a ticket from those who want to buy one) has helped. But the worst of it is that your poor check-in staff have to write out all boarding passes by hand. This always creates a stressful bottleneck, and makes travel from Abuja to Lagos on a Friday by Aero something only those who thrive on wahala should opt for.

A simple thing would change all this, for as long as you have to suffer the conditions of the current domestic airport: you should have your boarding pass system automated by computer. For all their problems, Virgin Nigeria do this very well at the International Terminal. I wonder what stands in the way of you implementing this? It would speed up processing of tickets and production of boarding passes by probably around 3-400%. It would create a seamlessly satisfying customer experience. It would do that little subtle bit extra to consolidate your position as Nigeria's favourite local airline. Food for thought...