Passengers traveling from Nigeria to other African countries are paying over double of what they will have paid going to countries within Europe, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other continents, BusinessDay’s findings show.
Experts have said the reason why airfares within Africa is ridiculously higher than other continent is because there are lack of competition, connectivity and enabling environment to make air fares affordable for an average African.
In addition to these, African countries have refused to sign on to the Yamoussoukro Decision, also known as open skies agreement, which allows for liberalization of rules for international aviation markets and minimizes government intervention.
BusinessDay compared ticket prices across Africa and Europe’s largest economies.
An average price for return ticket from Lagos to Kenya on Ethiopian Airline, Kenya Airways and RwandAir ranges from N350,000 to N400,000 and N320,000 to N350,000 from Lagos to Egypt using Kenya Airways, Etihad, Turkish Airline and Ethiopian Airline.
Also, average price of a return ticket from Lagos to SouthAfrica using South African Airways, Kenyan Airways and Rwand Air costs between N450,000 to N500,000 and costs between N300,000 to N350,000 from Lagos to Morocco on Royal Air Maroc and Egypt Air.
On the other hand, an Easy Airline return ticket from Milan to France cost about 50 pounds, which is equivalent to N25,400, using black market exchange rate of N508 to a pound.
Also, an Emirates airline return ticket from Dubai to Bahrain costs 925dihrams, which is equivalent to N90,660.
Average price of a return ticket on from Germany to Poland costs between N85,000 to N110,000. While an average price of a return ticket on from New York to Miami using United Airlines, JetBlue and Spirit Airline cost between N40,000 to N55,000.
For developing countries like Latin America and South Asia, the prices of tickets although high, but relatively cheaper than prices of tickets with Africa.
BusinessDay’s checks show that average prices of tickets from Brazil to Mexico goes for N250,000 to N280,000. From India to Afghanistan on Sprice Jet and Air India, prices of tickets is between N170,000 to N180,000.
In addition to these, prices of tickets from Bangladesh to Sri Lanka on Bimen Bangladesh and Jet Airways cost 147,000 to 160,000, while from New Delhi IGI (DEL) to Mumbai (BOM) in India, tickets cost between N35,000 to N50,000.
“Without the enabling environment for airlines to function and implementation of the open skies agreement, air fares will continue to be high amongst African countries,” Ikechi Uko, a Nigerian travel business consultant and tourism expert told BusinessDay.
Uko said in spite of the fact that African countries have protected their skies, all their Airlines are dying. “Countries with Open Skies are doing better in aviation, so where is the wisdom against Open Skies?” he added.
Ayodeji Ebo, managing director, Afri Invest told BusinessDay that part of what is responsible for the high airfares is the cost of operations, as this varies from one country to another.
“Annual charges for licences various countries may vary. The impact on the average Nigeria is that it increases your cost of living and that increases your purchasing power and that limits the average Nigeria from travelling for recreational, business or education purposes.
“If there are major business opportunities there, the cost of flight alone will discourage such investment and make it not viable by the time you factor in the costs,” Ebo added.
Tayo Ojuri, an industry expert and Chief Executive Officer, Aglo Limited, an aviation support service told BusinessDay that prior to this time, what has been the big challenge has been the fact that there has been restrictive bilateral agreements between intra-African markets and this has restricted the growth and development of Air services in Africa.
“With this single Africa Air market, it will offer potential for aviation to be the engine of growth. There will be an issue if the legal technicalities are not well spelt out. What has been a deterrent is the fact that many African countries still believe in protecting their national interest and this cannot be compared to the benefits of open skies.
“The only airline in Africa taking advantage of this open skies policy is Ethiopian airline. Asky airline was set up to take Ethiopia to through both African countries and into other continents,” Ojuri said.
He explained that part of the benefits of open skies is that the benefits of open skies are that it will increase air service connectivity, it will reduce air fares by over 25percent, it will help with integration of Africa and it is convenient and time saving.

 

IFEOMA OKEKE

Source: https://www.businessdayonline.com/news/article/nigerian-passengers-pay-higher-african-countries-within-europe-uae/

Experts have said the reason why airfares within Africa is ridiculously higher than other continent is because there are lack of competition, connectivity and enabling environment to make air fares affordable for an average African.



Corruption is the reason.

.....

No major flight hubs in Africa will always result in higher fares.

Hubs increases flexibility for airlines and flexibility means relatively lower fares. Blame it on African dinosaur leaders.

Without the enabling environment for airlines to function and implementation of the open skies agreement, air fares will continue to be high amongst African countries,” Ikechi Uko, a Nigerian travel business consultant and tourism expert told.

Read the article and find out.

post=70415603:
For what reasons nah?!

Na wa oo

Hmmm

Blue3k2:
Read the article and find out.

Josh44s:
I don’t need to read the article. I already know what it is just by reading the headline.

Okay now!

Choi

Hmm.. after now when someone say sh!t hole onaa go vex

Nigeria is the cause .

Later We Will Blame Colonial Masters For Our Backwardness. . .
Nah We Dey Do Ourself.

Africa

Return ticket for Lagos to Nairobi is about N265k!

Na why them dey fly plane from kitchen to bed in foreign movies.

Imagine how cheap it is.

Who cares

Spend the money like tomorrow no dey

this is a jok

Nigeria to SA is less dan 120k. Mushroom article

PUSSYBBQGRILLS:
Experts have said the reason why airfares within Africa is ridiculously higher than other continent is because there are lack of competition, connectivity and enabling environment to make air fares affordable for an average African.



Corruption is the reason.

Make una dey use una brain

Everything is not corruption

Abi PDP dey other African countries

This could all be solved by simply liberalising air markets. The protectist stance African countries takes does more harm than good. Alot of issues in Africa are self inflicted.

Africa: they are milking us dry

ednut1:
Nigeria to SA is less dan 120k. Mushroom article

Which airline?

I think it is more about distance. What is an average return ticket between Lagos Nigeria and Accra Ghana?

Africa a shithole continent

if u calculate the problem on ground in Naija, u will see the reason why it's faring higher.

aviation fuel is mostly bought from the black market

the airport runs on generators, diesel and maintenance inclusive, plus the ones security men will steal

u pay for everything here,
airlines pay government, Agberos in excess
bad workers that steal from them,
extra security to check stealing,
extra staff cos supervising Nigerians na wahala,

most of the plane engineers are expats (u know the billing nah)

add these and lots more that I can't remember now and see why we have to pay more just to live in our beloved country.

I noticed