Travellers groan as summer fares spike 200%, N1m per economy seat

Emerging from two years of pandemic disruptions, the world is fully reopening to summer travels this year. Besides the chaotic scenes at major airports in Europe and America over staff shortages, there is another disincentive for summer travellers in Nigeria – high airfare.

The Guardian survey of booking platforms of major airlines showed a major spike in available tickets to European, United States and Canadian routes among other holiday destinations. On the platforms are the traditional least airfares quoted, though not available for purchase.

Consequently, a Lagos-London-Lagos Economy Class ticket that earlier sold for an average of N350, 000 on platforms of European carriers is now available at higher layers of N1.1 million-plus. Early June 2022, the same tickets were sold for an average of N600, 000 and N650, 000 as at this time last year. Their Business Class variants, where available, were quoted for between N3.5 million to N4.8 million per seat, depending on the airline of choice and time of inquiry.

Lagos-Atlanta-Lagos Economy Class ticket was offered for between N500, 000 to N850, 000 as at June. It now sells for N1.3 million-plus where available. The Business Class fares hover between N3.6 to N5 million per person.

African and some middle-east carriers are offering fairly affordable deals for leisure travellers that would not mind hours of layover at transit airports. On their platforms are an average of N750, 000 fares to major destinations in the Middle-east and Europe.

Some air travellers have described the foregoing quotations as ‘ridiculous’. Abuja-based systems engineer and travel freak, Hameed Ailero, said air travel had gone beyond the middle class earners in Nigeria going by the rates airlines are offering tickets.

Ailero, who also traded-off summer travel last year due to high cost, said the Nigerian authorities should query the foreign airlines for “the discriminatory airfare.”

“For me, that is ridiculous and typical of countries where there are no consumer protection measures. Aviation is supposed to be the business of freedom where almost everybody should be able to fly. But how does one explain a six-hour return ticket that now goes for N1 million and in a country where minimum wage is N30, 000? How many people can afford that? That is what I mean by discrimination against average Nigerians, by both the airlines and complicit regulators.