Nigerians have taken to the social media to blast airlines for the high cost of tickets for domestic flights during the Christmas season. This comes on the heels of complaints by National Assembly members who say that the cost of air tickets is far beyond what the average Nigerian can afford.

At one of the plenary sessions at the Senate this week, lawmakers took turns lamenting the high cost of fares. Senator Onyekachi of Ebonyi North recounted his shock at discovering the cost of a one-way ticket from Abuja to Enugu on December 13th. “I called my personal assistant to get the ticket for me. Shockingly, the cost for a one-way ticket is N500,000 with Air Peace and N460,000 for Ibom Air. This is unheard of,” he said.

Senator Adamu Aliero revealed he would need to spend close to N700,000 to travel to Kebbi, saying that it is unaffordable, while Senator Abdulfatai Buhari also voiced his frustration, saying that flights from Abuja to Lagos now range from N400,000 to N650,000, while Abuja to Enugu costs about N500,000 and Abuja to Ilorin was approximately N450,000.

On social media, a passenger named Kokopee questioned whether airlines might be sponsoring insecurity to make roads unsafe and force travellers to pay inflated airfares. “Are these airlines the ones sponsoring banditry and kidnapping to make our roads unsafe so they can cash out?” she asked.

Another passenger, FS Yusuf, who was reacting to the cost of a flight from Lagos to Owerri via Air Peace for December 13th, which was N499,998, said: “This is pure wickedness and so unfair. How can a flight of less than one hour be N500,000?”

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, had told State House correspondents this week that the government has no power to fix prices for private enterprises, including the aviation industry. However, stakeholders have pushed back, saying that a government that takes more than 50 per cent of ticket costs as taxes, charges, and levies cannot claim to be powerless in making flight tickets affordable.

Indeed, the high cost of taxes has been a sore point for domestic airlines, which have consistently complained about how the multiple charges they have to pay are weighing down heavily on their businesses. At the moment, domestic and foreign airlines pay over 50 different charges to agencies including the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

The spokesperson of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Prof Obiora Okonkwo, also told Saturday Sun that airfares would drop if the federal government reduces the taxes and multiple charges that airlines pay. He revealed that at the moment, airlines face up to 18 taxes on one ticket and that the number of taxes imposed on airlines is a determinant of high airfares in the country.

On the cost of fares, the Chief Commercial Officer of United Nigeria Airlines, Raphael Uchegbu, defended the Christmas season pricing, arguing that airlines have maintained consistent fares despite high operational costs.

Speaking to Saturday Sun, he pushed back against criticisms of high airfares, noting that they still offer tickets to some routes at N95,000, N100,000, and N125,000. “When people talk about high fares, I don’t know what they are referring to because it has been like this for two to three years now,” he said.

Uchegbu explained that the high fares reflect the economics of demand and supply that are common with seasonal travel, particularly the challenge of empty return flights. “The trouble with the Christmas fare is that normally during that period, you have the fare doubled because it covers both legs. For example, if you are going to Anambra on the 24th, you have to pay a little above N300,000 because the plane comes back empty. So if you pay only N150,000, there’s nothing to compensate for that,” he said.

He also pointed out the disparities in operational costs across Nigerian airports, with Anambra emerging as one of the most expensive routes to service. “For Anambra airport, the tax for each passenger is N8,000. The one for Enugu is N2,000, the one for Owerri is N2,000,” Uchegbu explained.

The cost of fuelling is another major challenge. He said that while fuelling in Lagos and Abuja is the cheapest at N800 to N850 per litre, prices in other locations can reach N1, 200 or higher. In Bayelsa, for instance, airlines may face fuel costs of N1, 300 to N1,500 per litre, he said. Uchegbu also noted that Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal 2 in Lagos charges N8, 000 per passenger, though airlines benefit from cheaper fuel prices there. He further explained that the cost of fuelling has forced airlines to adjust their operational strategies. “At times, you see some airlines say, ‘Let me just buy in Lagos and not buy in that location. Maybe I shouldn’t even go too frequently. With the fuel I have, I can go and come back,’” he said.

Uchegbu said that the cost of operations has also affected flight frequencies. While United Nigeria Airlines operates flights to Owerri and Asaba twice daily, it flies to Anambra only once per day using a smaller aircraft. He said the airline couldn’t operate night flights to Anambra, unlike Asaba. He pointed out that only Air Peace and United Nigeria Airlines serve Anambra airport, and this has reduced the ability to spread costs across multiple carriers.

Despite the outrage over ticket pricing, Uchegbu insisted the airline has not increased fares from the previous year. “We’ve not done anything out of the ordinary. The price we are charging for Christmas is what we charged last year. Last year, we charged around N300,000 and this year, it is the same, so there is really no increase,” he said. (The Sun)