Airfares fluctuate amid COVID-19 second wave
Joseph Olaoluwa
The cost of air tickets along several routes have reduced as business activities have resumed for the New Year, findings by
The PUNCH have shown.
The decrease in the price regime was reflected by several carriers on flights for one-way trips from Lagos to Abuja.
Before now, the cost of flights ranged from N60,000 to over N100,000 last year due to rising insecurity in the country and cost of flight operations.
This is amidst the second wave of the COVID-19 virus in which the National Assembly and the Ministry of Aviation were considering banning flights from the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries with high rates of COVID-19.
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Kayode Oyero
Indigenous debt-ridden airline, Arik Air, has refused to speak on the move by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria to use its aviation assets especially planes to launch a multibillion naira airline.
The PUNCH had exclusively reported that the new international airline planned by AMCON, to be named Nigeria Eagle, may take to the sky with at least 10 planes as early as June, according to insiders.
It was also learnt that AMCON, a Federal Government-owned bad debt manager which owns controlling stakes in both Arik and Aero Contractors, chose to establish the new airline as a clever means of wriggling out of the multibillion naira liabilities currently hanging on the two carriers.
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Okechukwu Nnodim, Abuja
Airline operators have denied reducing the number of aircraft they operate on the domestic route following the reduction in staff by some carrier, as they argued that some aircraft were grounded for maintenance in-country or outside Nigeria.
It was gathered that this and a few other operational issues were contributory to the recent astronomical hike in airfares, as well as the intermittent flight delays experienced by domestic air passengers.
Findings showed that the cost of air tickets rose by over 100 per cent during the Yuletide, rising from an average of N30,000 to about N60,000 for a one-way flight of about an hour.