Before air travels in Nigeria become history

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3 years ago

Things have never been this bad in the history of air transport as witnessed in the gradual collapse of air travels with the hitherto huge volume of traffic speedily dwindling due to so many reasons.

Obviously, the challenges confronting air travels and aviation in general are not peculiar to Nigeria as it has become a global issue with governments across the world upping their games while trying to cushion the effects of the crisis.

In as much as the scary crisis is not limited to Nigeria, the situation however speaks volume to the survival of air travels in the nearest future in the country due to the lackadaisical attitude of the Federal Government.

Presently, the myriad of challenges confronting the sector can be likened to the case of a bird perching on a very thin rope with no comfort for both the bird and even the rope as the bird cannot gain its balance on it while at same time, the rope itself cannot enjoy the weight of the bird on its fragile posture.

The bird in this case represents the airlines with focus on the domestic carriers while the fragile rope represents the policies of government with the innocent passengers being the scape goat.

It is no longer hidden that air travellers across the country are the utmost victims of this bad situation in view of the negative consequences arising from the poor management of the crisis by the government which has made air travels now unaffordable to the generality of Nigerians.

With the present regime of fares being charged by both the foreign and local airlines, air travels in Nigeria can be adjudged to be the most expensive compared to other climes including even the neighbouring smaller African countries.

Prior to the recent times, with N25,000 or N30,000 in your pocket you can conveniently catch a one hour flight from Lagos to Abuja which has since become history as a one hour flight on this same route has increased to between N100,000 and N200, 000 or even more.

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This is even a child’s play compared to what is unfolding on the international routes where a return ticket on economy class on Lagos/London route has quadrupled from the erstwhile price of N400,000 to between N1.2million and N2million while a business class return ticket is as high as N5million.

While air travels in Nigeria has become almost unaffordable with government gradually losing out to neighbouring countries where fares are cheaper, the already existing hardships thrown at many Nigerians are getting more complicated as those who could not afford the unreasonable fares now have to travel to other nearest countries to connect flights.

The option of traveling to neighbouring countries like Ghana, Lome to catch flights may bring a little respite for outbound Nigerian travelers, the same is not with travelers within Nigeria who are presently suffering double edged torture of having to raise money in the midst of hopelessness to travel by air while those who could not are left with the deadlier mode of road transport.

It has now become a joke amongst stakeholders to say “flight ticket is now N150,000. Going by road is between N30 million and N100 million depending on your kidnapper. The choice is yours”.

The above statement has only gone to show the pathetic situation travelers on the domestic route have been subjected to daily where majority who cannot travel by air must now embark on the suicidal mode of road transport where terrorists are having a field day unhindered.

This is obviously a very bad time for air travels in the country and there seems to be no immediate relief coming on the way as the body language of the government towards the confusion is that of total hopelessness.

Amidst these challenges, the domestic airlines are the most hit with majority of them not being able to operate profitably as their cost of operations increase based on many factors ranging from the unavailability of forex, daily rise in the price of aviation fuel amongst others.

For the airlines to remain in business, the actions they have taken so far have further put the traveling public in a tighter economic condition which has led to a drastic reduction in the number of air travelers.

There are indications that fares will continue to go up until the situation improves and unless something positive is urgently done by the government to ameliorate the hardship, domestic air travels may be endangered.