Travels and Tourism

When you put a man that was created to walk in a

pressurised cabin 8000ft above sea level, to fly; a lot of things will happen. First, the oxygen content in the blood of passengers, in such cabins fall by 4%, culminating in series of bodily discomfort when sustained for hours. Secondly, when you add the other symptoms like headache, nausea, tiredness and sleeplessness that are associated with high altitude to the disruption of passengers’ body clock, what you are likely to have is a condition commonly called jet lag. If the cabin altitude is however lowered, we will have a reversal of condition and passengers will be better for it. However, if the cabin altitude is lowered, this will have adverse effects on the airlines as boosting the air pressure in the cabin will put greater stress on the aluminum frames which will end up shortening the service life of the airplane. Got it? It does not matter, just follow me.

Our choice of airline when my family was planning our trip was largely informed by the family budget and the nation’s fiscal policy. So, we flew Emirates airline and have an extended stopover in Dubai with room and meals paid for by the airline in a decent airport hotel. The undiscerning will probably be feeling indebted to the airline for their seemingly generosity, not knowing that the whole arrangement was packaged in a way that will ensure that we are fleeced of every cent in our pockets. The Dubai Airport is built in such a way that your long wait for your flight is at the duty free mall where temptation to buy is higher that your propensity to save. To pay our quota to their tourism purse, passengers are encouraged with free transit visa to enter Dubai and spend. Dubai, I later found out is run and managed not as a country but as a corporate entity, hence their unbelievable achievements and progress within a short space-time of nationhood.

We used to have a national carrier called the Nigeria Airways that PMB promised he was going to revamp once he gets into power. A year into his administration, the eleven airplanes in the presidential fleet he inherited from the GEJ are still in the hangers not serving any national cause. If we are serious about diversification of the economy, we must be looking at the prospects that travel and tourism offer. The logo of the Nigeria Airways used to be an image of elephant and with that, the airline is not likely to fly at any altitude.