Domestic Airlines in Nigeria Reduce Fares to win Passengers

It has been revealed that most domestic airline operators in Nigeria have reduced their fares in order to win back passengers. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the move was to encourage travellers who could not afford the high fares.

Arik Air, which sold its one-way ticket last week for between N30,000 and N40,000 to any destination in the country from Abuja, has reduced it to between N30,00 and N35,000 for economy class and N45,000 for business class.

Aero Contractors tickets, which were sold for N28,000 economy and N50,000 business class from Abuja, have dropped to N21,400 and N49,000 respectively, while IRS charges between N22,000 and N25,000 for economy and N50,000 for business flyers.

Med-View, a new airline which started operation last week, charges between N15,000 and N19,000 for economy ticket and N49,000 on business class from Abuja to Lagos.

A Business Development Manager for one of the leading Nigerian airlines told NAN that the airline had reduced its fare to gain more business opportunities adding that the move would also help the airline to mitigate losses occasioned by flying with empty seats.

This sounds like welcoming news for most local travellers especially at a time when most airlines rather tend to increase their fares for the end of year rush. N15,000 and N19,000 for economy ticket sure sounds like a good bargain. However, NAN noted that the rise in number of local airlines might have  prompted the airlines to reduce their fares.

Have you travelled within Nigeria by air recently? Did you notice any slash in fares from local airlines?