As demand for air travel services outstrips seats available on aircraft on major routes across the country, surge in passenger traffic for yuletide travels has boosted revenue for local carriers.
This is as local carriers latch on prevailing market forces to charge prohibitive fares on some routes considered high traffic belts for end of year travels.
Routes that fall within these high traffic belts include Lagos/Owerri, Anambra, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Benin, Uyo, Asaba.
Airlines operating in these routes include Air Peace, United Nigeria Airlines, Green Africa Airways, Ibom Air, Aero Contractors, Arik Air, Max Air, NG Eagle Airlines, DANA Air, and Overland Airways.
While airfares from Lagos to routes in the Southeast / Southsouth regions are the highest in the latest pricing regime, the cost of air tickets into destinations between Lagos/Abuja/Kano/Jos/ Yola/Maiduguri/Sokoto/ Kaduna and other routes in the northern region are not that prohibitive.
Worried by the trend, passengers are weighing travel options to beat the prohibitive airfares charged by local carriers, a development many say requires the intervention of the industry regulator, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The fare regime has altered the travel itineraries of many Nigerians opting to move from one part of the country to another, forcing air travellers to cough up more funds four times the cost of a one-way ticket a few years ago.
For instance, the least airfare on the Lagos/South Eastern routes – Owerri, Enugu, Anambra – goes for between N171, 500 and N266, 800 for a one way trip for limited seats between December 22, 2023 and December 24, 2023.
Data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that domestic air transport fares increased by 66.36 per cent in the last one year.
Checks by The Nation on the website of some airlines suggest that fares for intended travel on the Lagos/Benin route for Sunday, December 24, 2023 and December 28, 2023 ranges between N 114, 400 and N143, 000 , N190, 600 and N238, 200 respectively.
Booking for flights for intended travel between December 24 and 28, 2023 on the Lagos/Asaba route has a fare offering for N173, 500.
Fares on the Lagos/Warri route go for between N143, 100 and N238, 000 for travel intended for December 24- 28, 2023.
Fares on the Lagos/Port Harcourt route for travel for between December 24 and 28, 2023 go for between N123, 000 and N143, 000, while fares on the Lagos/Uyo route for same travel dates indicated scarcity of seats on some of the local carriers.
Investigations by The Nation reveal that fares on the Lagos/Abuja routes for same travel dates go for between N85, 800 and N100, 300.
Fares on same travel dates on the Lagos/Kano routes are oscillating between N76, 300, N85, 800, N100, 300, N143, 000, N190, 000 and N238, 200.
Flight booking for same travel dates on the Lagos/Yola route goes for N143, 000, whereas flight bookings for same travel dates on the Lagos/Kaduna route go for N143, 100.
Passengers are not only trapped in the difficulty of raising more funds to purchase tickets, but also struggling to get seats aboard the aircraft as most seats have been taken by early booking.
The difficulty in securing seats onboard the aircraft is not only on the economy cabin, seats on the business class cabin are also booked and filled.
Investigations reveal that the spike in airfares is dominant on the Lagos/South East and South South routes, where passengers’ movement is on the upswing compared to fares on the Lagos/Abuja, Kano, Yola, Maiduguri, Sokoto and other northern routes.
The escalating fares on these routes, The Nation investigation reveals, speaks to market forces and availability of seats by the airlines that operate these routes.
This year’s air fares, which suggest an unusual trend, is a far cry from what operators charged on the routes a few years ago.
Experts say the rising fares for the yuletide travel not only indicate the increasing number of available travellers on some of the routes, but the increasing preference for air travel following a spike in insecurity, kidnapping and banditry on the roads.
The prohibitive fares by local carriers may also have been triggered by the increasing cost of operations, multiple levies by aeronautical authorities, oscillating price of aviation fuel and other associated costs factored into airline cost.
Secretary of Aviation Round Table (ART), Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, said he noticed that fares have increased by 300 per cent, stressing that it is a reflection of the rate of exchange since the floating of the Naira which made the products needed in aviation to be expensive.
His words: “Look at aviation fuel price, most times, it has crossed the N1000 per litre price. Aviation fuel is a major cost in aviation and because of the hike in jet fuel occasioned by forex scarcity it has badly affected ticket pricing.
“Again, the leasing of aircraft during this season is more than thrice the cost it would have been without the season. I flew to Owerri last year on a wet-lease aircraft and I checked on the internet that the same ticket to Owerri on economy flight is N200, 000. You can see that the capacity is not there.”
“Some of them could not lease aircraft like they did last year to augment the seasonal flights and the expected crowd. The high insecurity in the East of Nigeria has discouraged people from travelling by road as people will pay the higher fares than be kidnapped and expect to pay N20 million for ransom.
“This increase is strictly for this season and for South-South and South-East. Fares to Abuja and other northern parts are somehow stable”.
Speaking on the development, the Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Capt. Ado Sanusi, said spike in airfares could be traced to the lure to make more money by operators exploiting gains on some routes.
He said: “I believe that there are some exploitative prices. I believe so, especially on the monopoly routes. The Eastern routes are somehow monopolised and come with exploitative prices.
“It is the capacity. If we have more airlines coming into the country and the NCAA allows more airlines to fly, then it will bring the price down. The more airlines we have flying, the more competitive it becomes and the more the prices will go down, but since we make regulations that are so hostile to start-up airlines, then, the prices will always go up.”
An official of a leading domestic carrier said there is nothing unusual about airfares during the yuletide season. He said airfares are fixed based on market dynamics.
He clarified: “As an aircraft seat gets fuller, the higher fares automatically get displayed. This is not just applicable to the domestic airline fare system; even the international airline fare system follows the same principle.
“The Eastern routes’ increased demand for flight tickets/high passenger traffic this season automatically impact how aircraft seats get sold. The seats get sold out faster than some routes with less traffic.
Therefore, the airline booking engine reservation system displays the higher fares faster even though eventually, the higher fares will get displayed on the less traffic routes as the seats get fuller, too.
“For instance, if you want to book a Lagos-Owerri flight for December 27, 2023, you will pay more than another customer who booked for the same flight in October because the flight has gotten fuller, and so higher fares are now showing on the booking platforms.”
