International airfares in Nigeria have virtually tripled on account of the blocked $464m belonging to foreign airlines with a one-way economy ticket selling for more than N1.5m, checks by Daily Trust have shown.
As at today, Nigerians now pay higher than what other countries even with longer travel hours pay on major international carriers as stakeholders express dismay over the perceived rip-off of passengers amidst threats by operators to quit Nigeria.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier, Emirates, has said it would suspend all Nigerian flights from September 1 citing difficulty in repatriating its $85m from Nigeria while more airlines are said to be exploring similar moves as their funds remain trapped without access to the foreign exchange to repatriate to their home country.
One of the consequences of the trapped funds is the exorbitant prices of international flight tickets, it was gathered with stakeholders decrying the development, saying flights are not that outrageous in other countries with trapped funds.
Though Nigeria is holding the bulk of foreign airlines’ funds in Africa, other countries with blocked funds as at June 2021 include Zimbabwe – $100million; 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.
Checks by Daily Trust on the websites of some international airlines show that an economy ticket for a Lagos-London flight, one of the most lucrative routes for foreign airlines, costs between N1.2m to N1.4m for one way.
Checks on British Airways indicate that the cheapest economy fare on the Lagos-Heathrow route cost $2,698 (over N1.7m at the parallel market rate) where some of the airlines’ source dollars. Lagos-London direct flight is about six hours, 30 minutes. The same fare was around N400,000 at the start of the year.
But on Harare (Zimbabwe) to London direct flight, which is over 10 hours costs $1,669 on the same BA.
Business Class passengers would need over N4 million for a one-way ticket to the UK and over N7m for a return trip.
On Turkish Airlines, a Lagos-London flight costs $3.044; Lagos to New York on Delta costs $4,029 for one way.
Also, the Lagos-Dubai flight advertised on Emirates Airlines’ website is N1,064,141 while Air Peace, a Nigerian carrier, sells the same route for N400,100.
IATA Regional Vice-President, Africa and the Middle East, Kamil Alawadhi had recently said airfares charged by international carriers are three times higher than what is obtained in other countries that do not retain airlines’ revenues.
Industry Expert and the Secretary-General of Aviation Round Table (ART), Group Captain John Ojikutu (retd) lamented that Nigeria is not keeping to the spirit and letter of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) where foreign airlines are required to pay royalties for their operations.
He also challenged the aviation industry to account for over $1 billion it earned from passenger service charges (PSC) and earnings by aviation handling companies.
Read the full story in Daily Trust
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