Moved by government’s charges and soaring aviation fuel price, domestic airlines are planning to raise their airfares to avert going bankrupt, airlines sources have said.
The accounts of virtually all the domestic airlines are currently in red, a situation some industry chief executive officers have attributed to harsh operating environment and the rising cost of operation.
They said the airlines were left with no option than to increase their airfares in order not to go under.
A top official of a domestic carrier, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said, “We are looking at how to jerk up the airfares without necessarily scaring our passengers away. It is a big challenge for us. We don’t know how to go about it but the way forward is really to increase airfares, which we must do if we must remain in business. How it will go, I don’t know now. But each airline will design how it wants to go about it.
“We are flying at a loss. No domestic airline flying in this country is doing so at a profit; neither can we say the airfares any airline is charging now are appropriate.”
Currently, one-hour flight, such as between Lagos and Abuja, goes for N20,000 to N35,000 in the economy class, depending on how early a prospective passenger buys the ticket.
Although the airline source did not give the percentage increase of the planned airfare hike, he stressed that it was not likely to be too high in order to make it affordable.
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