THERE are indications that domestic airlines are having it rough as there is sharp significant drop in passengers’ patronage, especially this festive period that hitherto they record high patronage due to the recent increment in the price of flight tickets.
Although the recovery in air travel is yet to be seen despite the Federal Government lifting of travel restrictions, as one-way economy ticket sells for N50,000 and above. Therefore, local airline operators may not find it easy in the passengers market this Easter season, as most traveller have resorted to go by road despite the insecurity that currently pervade the land.
Speaking with our Senior Correspondent at the domestic wing of Murtala Muhammad Airport (MMA-GAT) the MD/CEO of Adams Connect Travels also known as AC Travels, Olaloluwa Adeyemi, said that passengers traffic is very low because most travellers are not turning up to book or to travel as usual.
He blamed the low passengers’ traffic to the high price of airfare, adding the figures had dropped for sometime now, saying, “If it were in those days, most airlines’ seats should have been fully booked ahead of Easter celebrations. So far, and even when Easter is just a week away, the airlines are still recording low patronage.”
“Although Easter is here, but the number of passengers coming to the airport have somehow dropped. It seems people are probably now traveling by road despite the risk of insecurity — kidnapping by armed bandits. Also, it appears a number people are not travelling. However, we hope it improves in the coming days, as 2022 Eid al-Fitr will be observed from May 2 and 3.”
When our Correspondent inquired of airfare from Lagos to Asaba, it was N65,000 for one-way. “Even now there are no seats in most airlines. To get a ticket for Friday or Saturday, you must budget between N75,000 and N85,000 for one-way.
“Ticket fares are going up by the minute. If you are lucky, you can get one way ticket for N50,000; sometimes, it is N60,000 and even N80,000 in some cases. I am very sure, it will be more than that during the Easter period,” Adeyemi added.
To stay afloat and survive the turbulent time, most airlines have come up strategies to woo passengers, particularly during the Easter period. For instance, Arik Air has introduced a sales promotion that will enable its frequent flyer program, Affinity Wings, members to purchase miles for traveling across the airline’s domestic network.
Similarly Aero Contractors had come up with his own promo tagged “Four For Five” to encourage families to travel this festive period, while Green Africa had earlier introduced a special ‘One Month of Easter’ offer with starting fare of N25,500 across selected routes.
Meanwhile, airline operators have attributed the high airfare to rising cost of Jet A1 otherwise known as aviation fuel, which has hit an all-time high of N500 per litre.
With the cost of Jet A1 accounting for about 40 percent of the operational cost of most airlines, the colossal rise in the price of the product by over 300 percent within the last 12 months has increased the operational cost astronomically. Hence, most airlines have been left with no option than to increase airfares from N50,000 to N70,000 and above.
Affirming that the high cost of aviation fuel is a determinant factor the rising airfare cost, a former Director of Operations, Nigerian Aviation Handing Company (NACHO) Hurbert Odika, blamed the current scarcity of Jet A1 to the inability of the federal government to put the country’s refineries in order.
Tracing the hike in airfares to the airlines running cost, Odika said that the industry will never had witnessed the current economic predicament caused by shortage of aviation fuel in the industry assuming the refineries were working.
“We will refine here at cheaper labour cost, no ocean freight to bring back the finished product, no charges in foreign currency for refining the PMS or AGO to return them back to the country. Nigeria at the moment is cheating itself,” he said.
He remarked that he was very optimistic that President Buhari who had worked as a Minister of Petroleum in 1979 and chairman of Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), would have taken it as top priority that refineries will be up and running.
The aviation expert stated that hike in airfare was expected like every other business, he, however, remarked that the hike in Jet A1 sounded unrealistic from N200 to N625 per litre. He stated that, if there was justification to the increase in fare, the airlines were at will to do so but not to make it a blanket increase across the nation
“You don’t charge the same fare for a flight to Benin that is 35 minutes as somebody going to Yola or Kano that is over one hour. That is not realistic,” he said.
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