Airfares, passenger traffic drop after Yuletide season

Airfares and passenger traffic at Nigerian airports have dropped after the Yuletide celebration.

According to THISDAY, there has been reduction in passenger traffic on many of the routes, but the Abuja-Lagos; Lagos-Abuja and Abuja-Owerri; Owerri-Lagos routes still record high traffic, even.

However, the newspaper reports that cost of economy class has come down to N27, 000 from the over N60, 000 sold during the Yuletide.

Spokesperson of Arik Air, Adebanji Ola, said airfares had marginally come down, but still relatively high compared to this time the previous years.

Advertisement

According to Ola, this development was as a result of the weakening exchange rate against the dollars.

He noted that as long as the value of the dollar remained high compared to the naira, airfares would still be high as aviation expenses were denominated in dollars.

“Yes, fares have come down but they are still very high because the exchange rate to the dollar is still very high. That was the major reason that drove up airfares during Christmas season.

“Yes, there was high demand of tickets, which pushed the fares to upper bucket after the lower bucket was exhausted due to demand, but fares will still be high. What we have now is marginal decrease,” THISDAY quoted him to have said.

The Arik Air Communications Manager also said that the removal of 7.5 per cent VAT from aviation also helped to drive down the fares.

“We have removed VAT from our fares, but fares are still relatively high until naira gains value against the dollar,” he said.

The federal government on January 1, 2021, suspended the deduction of 7.5 per cent VAT on airfares and other air transport services.

The decision was contained in the 2020 Finance Act signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 31, 2020.

The move drew commendations from aviation industry operators who said that it would go a long way in reducing the cost of operation and also lead to reduction in airfares. (THISDAY)