Touting activities at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, has so much increased in recent times, than what it used to be, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
TheTide has observed that the new wave of touting at the airport, has so much increased that new faces, that are not familiar with the airport environment, bulldoze their way into the airport for money making through touting.
Findings have shown that this crop of people, have no particular skills or work schedule to do at the airport, but only hover around to secure attention of arrival passengers to beg money from.
Some of them, would want to assist arrival passengers to load their lugage into the booths of the cars, and at the end, expect cash from the passengers.
Further investigations have shown that many people who either lost their jobs due to Covid-19 lockdown, and those that their jobs are no longer stable, have also  seen touting at the airport as the next alternative.
It has been also observed that some security operatives at the airport, especially the aviation security at the airport, take turn in this, as they sometimes allow vehicles that want to pick arrival passengers, to park at unauthorised places, after which they reach out to them for a monetary handout.
Reacting to this, one of the business operators at the airport, Mr Victor Eme said that Covid-19 pandemic brought so much hardship to the people, adding that many businesses at the airport are just struggling to survive.
According to him, some people within the airport environment, just come to the airport to see what they can do to survive or make a living.
Meanwhile, the Acting Head of Corporate Affairs at the airport, Mr Kunle Akinbode in a recent interview with aviation correspondents said a taskforce will be set up to enforce and handle some irregularities  going on at the airport.

By:  Corlins Walter