Air Peace’s maiden flight to London, which is scheduled to start on March 30, 2024, is fully booked by Nigerians who have sought cheaper tickets to London.
Nigeria’s largest carrier, pegged its economy class ticket at N1.2million, thereby slashing fares on the route.
According to the airline, a return economy class ticket goes for N1.2 million naira, and a return Business Class Ticket sells for N4 million. Air Peace also made provisions for Nigerians studying in the UK to access a special 15 per cent rebate on the already reduced economy fares.
On the other hand, the average cost of a return economy class ticket on a foreign airline is about N3 million, while Business Class goes for about N8 million or more.
Foreign airlines have failed to reduce fares despite the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s call for lower ticket inventories to be released.
Airfares in the last two years have risen by over 400 per cent as foreign airlines in Nigeria saw their funds trapped in the country accumulate over a volatile foreign exchange rate.
The CBN had directed banks to remove the cap on the investors’ and exporters’ (I&E) window of the forex market to allow a free float of the naira exchange rate.
Last year, Nigeria officially floated its naira currency after years of sticking with a hard peg that spooked investors and drained dollars from the economy.
For two years now, airlines blocked low ticket inventories, leaving only high inventories to be sold in naira while the low ticket inventories on most airlines’ websites can only be bought with dollar cards only. This was to cushion the effect of their trapped funds in Nigeria.
The NCAA, recently directed airlines to release low ticket inventories. But BusinessDay’s findings show that many airlines showed cheaper ticket classes on their websites but these ticket classes were not accessible to Nigerians.
High fares charged by foreign carriers have driven several Nigerians to book Air Peace, as the airline’s maiden flight to London as well as return flights are fully booked.
