Nigerians to enjoy more competitive air ticket pricing

Experts say that with more indigenous airlines flying international routes, Nigerians will begin to enjoy more competitive pricing on tickets, as the locals present alternatives to international carriers and compete on pricing and quality of service.

“With domestic carriers flying international routes, fares will be reduced and there will be improved quality services on board because there will be  healthy competition between local and international airlines,” said Muneer Bankole, the managing director of Medview Airline’s.

This  is coming at a time when patronage of foreign airlines costs Nigeria millions of dollars annually, considered  as capital flight, since the revenue is not going to Nigerian carriers.

Furthermore, there have been claims by Nigerian air passengers over the years, that some foreign airlines charge significantly highier for tickets to Europe and the US, emanating from Nigeria, than they do for the same tickets emanating from other neighbouring West African countries.

Medview airline yesterday entered a partnership with travel management company, Anta, from the UAE, to fly

to Dubai, and the airline also actively flies to Jeddah, London and Ghana.

Similarly, another Nigerian carrier, Arik Air, flies to London, Freetown, New-York, Liberia and Accra.

BusinessDay findings show that while some  other Nigerian carriers fly to African countries, they plan to venture into Europe, the US and other core international destinations, as a second leg of their outreach.

“This is indeed a good development as we have had the international airlines taking advantage of Nigerians and charging exorbitant fares,” Noggie Meggison President, Airline Operators of Nigeria told BusinessDay.

Meggison observed that despite the seemingly high charges by the foreign airlines, many Nigerians prefer to use them when travelling abroad, even though some of the passengers have often had cause to complain of  the services offered by some of the airlines.

Meggison further said, “even when a local carrier like Arik Air charges less on the Nigeria-London route, civil servants who get their salaries from taxes paid by local airlines still prefer to fly British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.”

Another challenge local airlines face, is that the interest they pay to acquire aircraft in Nigeria is as high as 26 percent , while their counterparts pay much lower rates on borrowings because they originate from countries with better ease of doing business outlooks.

While Arik and Medview fly not more than three times weekly to London and the US, and with few passengers onboard, their counterparts like British Airways and Virgin Atlantic operate daily, with fuller bellies.

Opeyemi Agbage, an economist and chief executive of Resources and Trust Company Ltd (RTC) Advisory Services said, “when we ignore our own and fly other airlines like Lufthansa and British Airways (BA), the implication is exported capital, so we are losing again and it is a significant cost.

IFEOMA OKEKE