Local airlines roll out higher airfares for festive peak period

*Aero Contractors retains promo fares, begins ‘12 days of Christmas’ campaign
*Ibom to expand regional operations in 2025

Amid the price row between operators and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), local airlines have rolled out premium airfares for the festive season.

On some traditional high-traffic routes, several operators have jacked up fares to sell between N143,000 and N314,000 for an hour flight – depending on the airline and space availability.

However, Aero Contractors Airlines has retained its promo fare of N80,000-plus per one-way economy class ticket, with additional consumer benefits in the ‘12 days of Christmas’ campaign.

A random check by The Guardian yesterday showed several flights connecting Lagos and Abuja to the South and Eastern destinations almost fully booked. Available seats are now offered at a premium.

For instance, the largest carrier in the country, Air Peace, has flights to destinations like Anambra at N143,000, N162,000, N238,000, N285,800 and N314,000, depending on the flight date.

Its counterpart, United Nigeria Airlines, offers available seats on the Abuja-Anambra route for N125,500 and N300,000. Akwa Ibom State-owned carrier, Ibom Air, retains N152,000 on the Abuja-Uyo route. A one-way ticket on Valujet from Lagos to Port Harcourt between December 18 and 20, 2024, costs N164,761.

The operators earlier warned of further price spikes as the festive peak period approaches, which have drawn the ire of the FCCPC.

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air Peace, Toyin Olajide, bemoaned the high operating cost, saying the airline alone spends over N14 million to execute a one-hour flight, of which the cost of aviation fuel accounts for 60-65 per cent.

“One litre of fuel is N1,400. If I have to operate a one-hour flight from here to Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Owerri, I will use about 4,000 litres of fuel.

“So, on average, a one-hour flight costs N7 million on fuel alone. Also, ACMI (maintenance) costs $4,000 for leased planes, considering the challenges we are currently facing,” Olajide said.

Though coming from the same industry, Aero Contractors has added to its promo offers the “12 Days of Christmas” campaign to give back to families, friends, and communities between 13 and 24 December 2024.

The “12 Days of Christmas” campaign invites travel enthusiasts, loyal customers, and holiday travellers to participate in fun and interactive activities on Aero Contractors’ social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter).

Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Capt. Ado Sanusi, said Aero Contractors believes in the power of togetherness, especially during the holidays.

“Our ‘12 Days of Christmas’ campaign is our way of giving back to the community that has supported us throughout the year. It’s an opportunity to engage, celebrate, and reward our customers while spreading joy and festive cheer,” Sanusi said.

In a related development, Ibom Air has concluded plans to add three new Central African destinations in 2025, building on its sole existing intra-African route between Lagos and Accra.’

Ibom Air’s COO, George Uriesi, told Aviation Week of additional destinations in the offing.

Uriesi said: “We started with Lagos-Accra about a year ago, and starting next year, we’re going to expand to two or three other regional destinations.”

The former Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said these three central African destinations would be added during 2025, but he declined to name the destinations just yet. The routes will be “intertwined,” meaning they will operate as stops rather than direct services.

Ibom Air flies to seven destinations—six domestic and one intra-African—using a fleet of seven CRJ900s and two Airbus A220-300s.

It has nine more A220-300s scheduled to arrive by 2028, and the company is planning to transition to an all-A220 fleet.

Uriesi said Ibom Air has an average load factor of nearly 90 per cent, and the CRJ900s are too small to meet the demand.

The A220s have sufficient range for Ibom Air to fly to destinations like Cairo (Egypt), Cape Town (South Africa) and Casablanca (Morocco). But, unlike other African carriers, Ibom Air has no ambitions of branching out into long-haul flights.

“Let the Ethiopians and the Egyptians do all that,” Uriesi said. “We will stay in Africa.”

Ibom Air prioritises maximising load factors and frequencies rather than chasing market share or new destinations.

Six Ibom Air’s destinations are domestic within Nigeria, operating alongside one regional route to Ghana.

“Our strategy is not to expand and stretch ourselves thin but to maintain our footprint where we have frequencies. “We have seven destinations right now, and we’ve kept those seven destinations now for the last three years,” he said. “It doesn’t follow that we have more aeroplanes, so let’s go to other places. No, we expand granularly, and we provide frequencies.”