About N60million was lost to three hours strike embarked upon by Air Traffic Controllers yes-terday when they shut the na-tion�s airspace.
ATCs at airports all over the country abandoned their duties and refused to clear aircraft for landing or take off when they protested the death of their colleague which they blamed on negligence on the part of the management of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
Following the action of the ATCs many passengers were stranded at airports across the country when airlines cancelled flights.
The assistant station mana-ger of Chanchangi Airlines Ah-med Babadiya told Daily Trust yesterday that the airline lost N10million to the three hours strike.
Other domestic airlines such as Bellview, Virgin Nigeria, Arik and Aero Contractors also said they lost millions of naira to the strike.
According to him, Chanchan-gi Airlines cancelled four flights yesterday during the strike, ad-ding that flights that were cancelled include flight 196 to Abuja with 108 passengers, and flight 199 from Abuja to Lagos with 199 passengers, flight from Owerri to Lagos with 60 passen-gers and flight from Lagos to Owerri with 90 passengers.
Babadiya hinted further that even when the ATC called off the strike around 6pm yesterday, the airline still refunded fares to 60 passengers who complained that it was too late for them to travel by air.
Meanwhile, Chanchangi Air-lines has increased its flight frequency from Lagos to Abuja to cater for the need of air trave-lers, especially the business class passengers who can now do business during the day and return to Abuja same day.
According to the Media Assistant of the airline Ibrahim Adamu, the departure time of the flight is 7pm which is convenient for people who have all day engagement in Lagos and would want to go to Abuja at night.
He said the airline also plans to reopen its Enugu airport operations as soon as logistic arrangements are concluded.
The introduction of the 7pm flight to Abuja has brought to seven the number of flight the airline operates to Abuja.
The airline has also brought back from Belgrade its aircraft operating in its fleet.