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By Ayoola Olaitan
Airlines operating in Nigeria have been encouraged to increase their fares to dissipate the economic losses amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
With airplanes needing fumigation before take-off and after landing, an additional cost on airliners, the already stressed air travel sector may have to increase prices of flight tickets.
The Secretary General of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative and Chief Executive Officer, Centurion Securities, Group Captain John Ojikutu (Rtd), made this claim yesterday, even as he stressed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) palliative cannot save domestic airlines from the current fiscal challenges.
Ojikutu argued that airlines have been struggling with paltry fares prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. He blamed the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for approving faulty business plans for airlines.
According to him, “No amount of palliative or low interest rate from the CBN can save the Nigerian domestic airlines today. This is because the business plans that most of the airlines submitted, and approved by the NCAA were faulty from the start of their operations”.
He opined that with the advent of COVID-19 pandemic has only exposed the negligence of compliance and the enforcement of the necessary provisions of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (CARs).
According to him, some airlines are yet to account for over N200billion collected as palliatives few years ago. He stressed that the six defaulting airlines of the previous palliatives shouldn’t benefit from the new CBN palliative.
He also expressed dissatisfaction on the statement credited to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who recently said that there would be no increase in air fares.
Ojikutu argued that it is important for NCAA and the airline operators to make critical rethink on increase in fare not because of the covid19 pandemic but because it had been long due before the pandemic and could be worst for the industry in Nigeria than anywhere else.
His words, “I remember very well that when the dollar was 40 naira in the early 90s, air fare to the US was about 40, 000 naira or 1,000 dollars and 3,800 naira from Lagos to Enugu when aviation fuel was refined in the country and sufficiently available. Today, a dollar is 460 naira and airlines are selling tickets to Abuja and Enugu at 33,000 naira or less when fuel is imported at subsidised prices. The pricing isn’t appropriate”
Meanwhile, the Director, Press and Public Affairs, Ministry of Aviation, Mr. James Odaudu responding to the claim credited to the Minister that ‘”there would be no increase in air fare”, stressed that the Minister was being quoted out of context.
Odaudu noted that the Minister was responding to questions about the likelihood of airlines hiking ticket prices should they be required to leave some seats empty for physical distancing in the cabins.
His words: “The Minister responded by saying that since social distancing may not be necessary inside airplanes, price hikes beyond the normal rates may not happen. He went further to explain why distancing is not necessary. We should however note that ticket prices are deregulated and so not dictated by Ministerial fiat”
