Lagos-Abuja one-way flight ticket hits N100k

Nigerian airlines have finally increased domestic flight fares to N100,000 baseline, from Lagos to Abuja.

While Air Peace economy ticket for Sunday at 10:40am and 7:50pm was priced at N100,000, seats on Max Air flights scheduled for 8:30am and 9:10am went for N125,000 and N130,000, respectively.

Seats on an Air Peace flight scheduled for 6:30am on Sunday were still selling for N85,000, with flights at 2:55pm and 3:20pm sold out.

At the time, Max Air’s flights scheduled for 5:20 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. were still selling for N84,000 and N75,000, respectively.

Also, prices for economy tickets in Arik ranged between N80,595 and N93,452, with Ibom Air’s only available Sunday flight selling its economy ticket for N78,000.

The increase in airfare is the result of multiple challenges confronting the aviation industry, including an increase in the price of Jet A1 and the high cost of facility maintenance caused by inflation and the depreciation of the country’s currency.

Already, Nigeria’s oldest airline, Aero Contractors, has temporarily suspended operations due to the scorching impact of skyrocketing price of aviation fuel.

The airline said operations in the past few months had been challenging, citing high cost of maintenance, skyrocketing fuel prices, inflation, and forex scarcity as some of the challenges faced by airline operators.

Also in May, airline operators threatened to shut down operations over the incessant hike in price of aviation fuel from N160 to N900 per litre.

The union had in a letter to Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, bemoaned the increase in cost of operations reaching over ninety-five per cent.

Also, in a bid to further reduce disruptions in the aviation industry, the House of Representatives ruled in May that six million liters of aviation fuel be sold to airline operators at the rate of N480 per litre for the next three months.

However, reports have predicted that airlines would shut down operations in the country over the incessant hike in aviation fuel, along with other environmental challenges.