Wole Shadare The times are increasingly becoming harder for Nigerians in every aspect of the sector as air travellers would have to pay over 100 per cent increase to travel to destinations of less than one hour.
Passengers feel the pinch in their pockets as air ticket prices hit an all-time high, leaving many to wonder about the factors driving this upward trend.
Stakeholders, however, called on the Federal Government to seek alternatives to the rising cost of air travel by constructing a rail system from Lagos to Abuja, Kano and to the South East and other regions.
While operators appear constrained, aviation experts emphasized the need for proactive solutions to address the challenges and alleviate the burden on travellers.
Airlines have continued to raise fares beyond what average Nigerians or middle-income earners can afford as fares are expected to rise to over N400,000 from November 1, 2024.
While many carriers are silent about publishing their fares, Air Peace in a message to its customers said: “Dear valued clients, please be informed that effective November 1, 2024, Air Peace would be adding a 100per cent increase to their fares across all local routes.”.
This is coming as the carrier increased its no-show fees from N5,000 to N15,000. The increase from Lagos to Abuja, which goes for less than N200, 000 jumped to N300,000 for economy seats while the cost could be as high as N400,000 and more depending on the time of ticket purchase.
Other carriers like Ibom Air, Rano, Arik, Aero Contractors, ValueJet, and Green Africa have equally reviewed their fares but they are not as high as what Air Peace is offering.
More hardship awaits travellers as the Yuletide approaches; a situation that would make many people travel by road as the carriers are dealing with capacity hiccups occasioned by a shortage of aircraft, which would make demand triple.
The tripling of demand outweighing supply could further make one-way fares for an hour trip to be as high as N500,000 and N600,000.
Chief Executive Officer of Belujane Konsult, Mr Chris Azu Aligbe, told Sunday Telegraph the increase was becoming harder for air travel passengers, adding that air travel passengers will suffer a lot.
“Unfortunately, the roads are not good. If the roads were good, it would have been a different thing. So, what is likely to happen is that fewer people will travel as we approach high season because the capacity is not there and they cannot jump air the capacity even with the practice direction of Cape Town Convention (CTC).”
“Before these people start getting aircraft, it will be a challenge with even the ones they have. Maintenance has been a problem. It is going to be a very difficult thing for air travel. Many will not travel this period in time. Flights will be full because people are already booking their November flights. These airlines have not opened their portal for December.
“It is not opened because they believe that they are going to make a kill in December. What we do is just to prepare or make a decision not to go anywhere because the roads are not what they should be. If you have a family of two; to be able to travel, you have to pay over a million naira. How much do you earn?
“What is the objective of going home? Except it becomes extremely necessary, I don’t think people will travel that much. With their small capacity, they will have full flights no doubt but the fact of the matter is that there is no capacity. Since we have been telling them that they don’t have capacity, they said that we are making noise. Now it is clear”, he added.
Not a few believe that the reasons for the continuous increase in fares are not altruistic, pointing to the stability of jet fuel for nearly a year and the fact that the commodity is now sourced locally.
A travel expert, who pleaded anonymity, said the ground handling firms have not increased charges while charges from the aviation agencies have remained the same for a long time, calling the operators, ‘greedy’.
While airlines keep increasing fares, all taxes have remained the same; a situation stakeholders said is uncalled for.
“The truth of the matter is that the airlines have a shortage of aircraft. Many of their aircraft are overseas for maintenance and they cannot bring them back to the country. All the domestic carriers are currently operating with less than 60 aircraft; a far cry from when we had over 120 aircraft in operation. They do not have enough capacity for the kind of operations they are doing”.
Nigeria’s domestic airlines seem to be in a ‘life and death’ struggle to secure the Forex they need to acquire their spare parts to maintain their aircraft.
Airline operators under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have attributed the high cost of air travel to the high cost of operation, scarcity of Foreign Exchange that has hampered them from bringing their aircraft from offshore maintenance, multiple taxation and unfriendly environment for airline operations in the country.
