Hope James
Air travelers have begun groaning bitterly under the outrageous increase in airfares for flights within Nigeria as a one-hour flight now costs over a hundred thousand (N100, 000) naira.
Investigation by reporters reveals that economy class domestic tickets from Lagos to Abuja via Arik Air, United Nigeria and Air Peace as of the time of filing this report cost over N150,000, other airlines have since followed suit.
Ubong who claims to be a frequent traveler said, “The federal government and all those concerned should do the needful, why does the average Nigerian have to suffer. I mean, we are a fuel producing nation, why are we suffering?”
“Everybody is just doing as they like, how can you say Lagos to Abuja is N154,000, am I plucking money from the tree? The roads are not safe, so travel by road and get kidnapped. Those that were kidnapped on the train how many months ago are still in captivity. Which account will I write this expense?” he lamented.
Another traveler who said she had to make the trip as she was going on business stated, “The Nigerian travelling populace is made up of mostly business people, should we now spend all our earnings on air transport? I can’t even begin to explain how this makes me feel,” Miss Nike concluded.
The umbrella body for domestic airlines in the country, Airline Operators of Nigeria, had a few days ago notified passengers of air transport services that the sector has been hit by a major crisis of acute scarcity of aviation fuel(Jet A1) and warned them of possible flight cancellations and hike in airfares.