Local airlines have blamed the nation’s high inflation and volatile foreign exchange rates for the increased costs.
Osita Okonkwo, the chief operating officer of United Nigeria Airlines, told Sunday PUNCH that the nation’s current economic problems were having an impact on the aviation industry.
“It is an economic issue. We have little naira chasing forex, and it is because of the economy that is stagnant and not growing as fast.
“Many people are shunning travelling by air. So, there is a limit to which you can increase your fares to be able to reflect your cost. Because if you increase it to the real cost, many people will not fly. Operators are trying to see how far that can go, hoping there is a turnaround. When we talk about economic issues, we mean inflation, lack of opportunities, lack of growth in the economy, and high interest rates.
“Activities are slowing down. Although people are still getting fares below N100,000, which is not sustainable. Just a few tickets are sold above that, whereas the minimum should be N150,000. We are trying to balance it.”
John Ojikutu, the CEO of Centurion Security Limited, provided background information on the present difficulties by stating, “In the early 1990s, tickets were selling for $100.” It won’t work to sell your ticket for less than $100. Compare your travel costs to the US dollar.
“There are so many things we were doing at that time that didn’t make us feel the price. We had Dunlop tyres at the time, and some of them started producing tyres for our aircraft. Today, there is no part of aircraft that we are not importing.”
