By Chinelo Obogo
Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has denied increasing air fares to a minimum of N50, 000, saying the amount has been in place for a long time and not a new development.
At the end of its Annual General Meeting (AGM) Wednesday in Lagos, AONVice President, Allen Onyema, said that despite the fact the cost of operations have tripled, domestic airlines didn’t agree on a fixed price of N50,000, rather, operators fixed their prices based on the cost of their operations.
He said airlines lose billions monthly due to air strikes and that they are also mandated to pay at least 37 different charges and after many deductions must have been made, they are usually left with about N5,000 per ticket.
“We have been accused of raising fares and some people even said that we are a cartel. But we want to make bold to say that Nigerian airlines never got together to increase their base fares. We debunk the insinuation that airlines got together to fix prices. The N50,000 you are seeing in our inventory has always been there.
“The price of jet A1 fuel has gone from N190 to N430, yet the lot of the airlines have not improved. The ground handling companies increased their charges by 300 per cent and they got together to do that and it has been approved for them. If the cost of my operations has increased, what should I do? Foreigners have been asking how we are able to maintain our planes with the kind of fares we charge.
“In 2000, the least fare in Nigeria was N2,200 which was the equivalent of $100 then, now, 22 years later, we are flying for less than $40. People are talking about N50,000, which is below $100 and with the fact that all our spares come from abroad and the fact that we are paying about 37 charges, makes it difficult for us. The N50, 000 is not even enough. If you fly to Asaba Airport, passenger service charge is N5000, then you pay NCAA, NAMA, ground handling charges, salary, maintenance etc and at the end of the day, what comes to the airline is less than N5,000.
“N50,000 has always been in our inventory, we didn’t start it today. So there is nothing like airlines getting together to fix prices. If we did, we would be very bold to say it because there is a precedence already set by the ground handling companies.
“When we needed to change the engine of our 777, it cost us over N7 billion. We lose not less than N20billion monthly due to bird strikes. The other day, we took off from Owerri and we had a bird strike that took out the engine and we had to divert to Port Harcourt. We had to buy an engine for three million dollars which is about N2 billion. The entire passengers on that plane didn’t pay up to N1.3 million,” he said.
Onyema also condemnedmultiple designations granted foreign airlines such as Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines by the Federal Government, saying such action causes loss of jobs that would have been available to Nigerians as most domestic airlines provide more jobs for Nigerians than foreign operators.