“Funny thing is despite increased fare, flights are filled” — How air ticket prices jumped last week

Amidst the spike in aviation fuel prices and forex scarcity in Nigeria, most domestic airlines pegged their minimum fare at N70, 000 and above this week.

A review of air tickets prices across major domestic airline companies such as Air peace, Ibom Air, Max Air, and Azman among others shows that the minimum prices for air tickets rose by at least 40 per cent from N50, 000 it was selling for in February when the aviation fuel crisis surfaced.

Within the past weeks, the rising cost of aviation fuel and forex scarcity worsened. This has caused some airlines to suspend operations, while others still in operation have evidently opted to increase ticket fares in a bid to complement the soaring aviation fuel and dollar scarcity.

They said aviation fuel has risen from about N190 per litre it was selling for early this year to almost N1000 per litre.

Before now, the economy class fares hovered between N23,300 and N48,000 and above mark. But this is no longer the case within the last six months as Airline operators have attributed the sudden hike in ticket fare to rising cost of Jet fuel and difficulty to access forex.

For instance, Ibom Air pegged an Abuja to Calabar bound flight within the range of N88,000 and N120,000 within the week, while its Abuja to Uyo, Enugu, Bayelsa and Lagos bound flight tickets climbed to as high as N96,000 and 110,000 within the week.

“The funniest part is that even with the increased fare, flights are getting filled up. We have been operating full flights these days, I am sure that if the airlines had experienced a shortfall in passenger patronage they would have had a rethink on the sudden increase in fare,” an official of the airline who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak on the issue said.

Likewise, the prices of tickets to major cities like Lagos, Calabar, Maiduguri and Benin from Abuja on Airpeace, Azman and MaxAir jumped to as high as N82,000 to N85,000 within this period.

The minimum ticket price for even a three-week booking on Air Peace, Ibom air, Max Air, Azman air and others was pegged at N70,000 flat rate, with only a few cases of N65,000 seen. This is about a 200.4 per cent increase from the N23,300 minimum rate in January and early February this year.

Asked if the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is bothered about the sudden increase in fare by the Airlines, NCAA’s Public Relations General Manager, Sam Adurogboye, in a short response said, “Certainly, we are all concerned.”

“Efforts are being made by the Federal Government to intervene,” he added.

Nigeria’s aviation minister, Hadi Sirika, last month, hinted that there was no immediate solution to the challenges bedevilling the sector.

Lingering challenges

Air travel in the country has witnessed significant patronage in recent years due to rising insecurity that has seen many roads taken over by kidnappers. The high risks hovering around road transportation have pushed more people to take to the skies, resulting in poor services as some airlines struggle to meet demand.

In recent months too, Nigeria’s forex scarcity worsened, due to depletion of the country’s foreign reserves and increased demand for forex, which further exacerbated the devaluation of the Naira at both the official and unauthorised markets respectively.

At the same time, international airlines have been unable to repatriate funds trapped in Nigeria. This triggered Emirates Airlines’ imminent decision to suspend all its flights from and to Nigeria by September 1.

Following the announcement by Emirates, on Friday, the leadership of the House of Representatives resolved to invite the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele and Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed and MR Sirika among others over Emirates Airline’s planned suspension of flights.