Nigerian airlines have increased the cost of economy flight tickets for domestic routes from about N35,000 to a base line of N50,000.
The affected airlines are Azman Air, Max Air, Ibom Air, Arik Air, Air Peace and Dana Air.
Reports say most of the airlines have increased their base rate to N50,000 for Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri routes.
For instance, Azman Air and Max Air’s fares for Sunday is N50,000. Ibom Air’s fare is N53,000 while Arik Air, Air Peace and Dana Air fixed above N50,000 for an economy seat.
On the other hand, flights from Lagos to Port Harcourt are pegged at N50, 750 for United Nigeria, N50,000 for Air Peace and N50,250 for Arik Air.
Aero Contractors — which was previously around N30,000 — pegged its fare at N48,365 for Lagos to Abuja while Green Airways Africa — which had a base fare of N22,000 — is now about N33,000 for economy class.
The same base fare of N50,000 was fixed for the Lagos to Abuja flights of March 3.
Contacted, the Public Relations and Communications Manager for Arik Air, Adebanji Ola, referred all inquiries to the company’s website for the cost of flights.
Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) attributed the hike to the high cost of jet A1 fuel, forex scarcity, inflation, increase in ground handling charges, cost of buying and importation of spare parts.
According to the Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines (UNA), Obiora Okonkwo, the sudden increase in the price of Jet A1 is hurting the operations of airlines.
“The least ticket we sold a year ago was N23, 000 when aviation fuel was N190 and the official rate of naira to a dollar then was N340, but today, if forex is available, it is N450, but when it is not available, the alternative market is N570 to a dollar,” he explained.