Going by the advertised fares on foreign airlines websites, Nigerians now pay three times what other travellers pay for the same destinations amid threat of the international operators to suspend flights.

Industry stakeholders describe the prevalent situation as rip-off and findings showed that other travellers from other countries where airlines are yet to repatriate their revenues do not pay such outrageous fares.

Other countries in Africa that hold on to huge amount of airlines’ revenues as at June, 2022 include Zimbabwe – $100 million; Algeria – $96 million; Eritrea – $79 million, Ethiopia, $75 million and Ghana, which was not listed by IATA in June but had not allowed airlines to repatriate their earnings due to paucity of foreign exchange.

Currently, Nigerian travellers pay over N1.2 million for one way economy ticket for about six to eight hours flight and over N4 million for business class ticket with round trip ticket going for N3 million for economy and N7 million for business class tickets.

Investigation revealed that foreign airlines have not charged similar outrageous fares in other countries where airlines are yet to repatriate their earnings.

IATA Regional Vice-President, Africa and Middle East, Kamil Alawadhi said airfares charged by international carriers are three times higher than what obtains in other countries that do not retain airlines’ revenues and expressed fear that the fares might continue to rise until Nigerians would not be able to afford international travel and that would eventually weaken the nation’s economy.

Alawadhi explained that airlines were charging higher fares to Nigeria so that they could make profit from one leg of the trip, as most trips are charged on return ticket.
Industry expert and the Secretary-General of Aviation Round Table (ART), Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd) said that before any anyone should blame the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the aviation industry should first account for over $1 billion it earned from passenger service charge (PSC), earning by aviation handling companies.

He lamented that Nigeria is not keeping to the tenets of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA), whereby foreign airlines pay royalties for their operations in Nigeria, especially when Nigerian carriers do not reciprocate the same service to the host countries of those airlines.

“First, why do we find ourselves among the countries that are not keeping to the articles of the BASAs? Secondly, what happens to our forex earnings on commercial aviation particularly those that earned by the aviation services providers like the PSC of $100/pax and those earned on landing and parking? What about the forex earnings by others like the ground handling services companies such as NAHCO (Nigeria Aviation Handling Company Plc), SAHCOL (Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc) and the fuel marketers?

“My last calculations on all these is over $1billion, but where are they before we start blaming the CBN that can not account for the earnings and deposits from others earnings forex like NNPC (the Nigerian National Petroleum Company), NPA (the Nigerian Ports Authority), NIMASA (Nigerian Maritime Administration and safety Agency) etc? (Chief Olusegun) Obasanjo said at the first public hearing on aviation ever held by any President in Aso Rock about 2006/2006 that forex earnings by aviation operators including the NCAA (Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority) be domiciled in the CBN, naira equivalent given to the operators but can be returned to the CBN when the needs arise; what happened to that presidential directive?
“What has been happening over the years in the Nigeria commercial aviation policies, regulations and administration are nothing but what I call unilateral exploitation of the systems? We are going to be the loser if the foreign airlines withdraw their services of flights to our country because about 70 to 80 percent of our earnings in commercial aviation are from the foreign airlines.

What will happen further will see Nigerians going to Accra, Cotonou, Lome, etc to connect the flights of these foreign airlines making them hubs over Nigeria. I saw these happening to us when a Minister unilaterally cut off the Commercial Agreements between us and them and when we indirectly open the domestic routes and markets for some them for multiple destinations. The consequences are staring on us all; now who will save us from ourselves?” Ojikutu said.

However, industry analyst and Director, Research, Zenith Travels, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo said, “We are being charged the higher rate because we have the highest figure among the debtors. Secondly we do not have the capacity to reciprocate of those routes so the dominant carriers determine the fares.

Nigeria has a very strong travel population, so we have a lot of supply, which outweighs the demands currently as airlines cut frequencies. Also, the naira continuous spiral fall is affecting the overall costs of the tickets.

Ohunayo also explained that most of the travels in Nigeria are sponsored by the public and others that can actually afford it are those who have it.

“You see that there are more demands for the business and higher economy class. So since these higher classes are being demanded here, these airlines tend to push fares in line with those demands so that the next available ones will also be a bit higher. So the airlines are using this market forces to push prices as well,” he said.
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