Article summary
- Data from NBS shows that Kebbi, Bayelsa and Enugu states had the highest single flight ticket charges in March 2023.
- Prices have skyrocketed between March 2022 and March 2023.
- A traveller who scheduled a flight ticket to one of the states in May 2023, says she paid up to N90,000 for a single trip via economy class.
Kebbi, Bayelsa and Enugu states had the highest single flight ticket charges in March 2023. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The Transport Fare Watch report for March 2023 places single-journey flight ticket charges in Kebbi state at N80,000, Bayelsa state at N79,100 and Enugu state at N79,000.
Meanwhile, the states with the lowest single-journey flight ticket charge for a single journey are Abia state at N69,850, Lagos/Benue/Kano/Niger/Jigawa at N70,000 and Akwa Ibom at N70,100.
Also, according to the NBS report, the average single flight ticket charge paid by air passengers for specified routes single journey, increased by 0.28% on a month-on-month basis from N74,571.62 in February 2023 to N74,755.41 in March 2023.
A review of prices across zones within a year
A review of flight ticket charges for single journeys across all geopolitical zones in the country from March 2022 to March 2023, revealed that prices had increased by up to 40% and above.
- In the Northcentral, flight ticket charges for a single journey rose by 60.90% from N45,335.41 in March 2022 to N72,942.86 in March 2023.
- In the Northeast, flight ticket charges for a single journey rose by 47.57% from N52,166.67 in March 2022 to N76,983.33 in March 2023.
- In the Northwest, flight ticket charges for a single journey rose by 57.15% from N47,589.42 in March 2022 to N74,785.71 in March 2023.
- In the Southeast, flight ticket charges for a single journey rose by 74.98% from N42,948.98 in March 2022 to N75,150 in March 2023.
- In the Southwest, flight ticket charges for a single journey rose by 61.88% from N45,714.02 in March 2022 to N74,000 in March 2023.
- In the South-South, flight ticket charges for a single journey rose by 61.08% from N46,581.66 in March 2022 to N75,033.33 in March 2023.
A Traveller’s Context
Onyi Anosike, an Abuja-based businesswoman told Nairametrics that flight ticket prices are expensive these days compared to the past few years. She said she recently scheduled a one-way Economy flight ticket on a Friday in this month of May to Enugu from Abuja and paid over N90,000.
According to her, the prices will keep increasing because of some factors like taxes, prices of aviation fuel as well as the obstacles to freely operating a business in Nigeria which will result in the transfer of burden costs to final consumers.
Recall that a year ago, Nairametrics reported that domestic airlines’ travel costs were on the rise as a result of rising operational costs occasioned by aviation fuel price hikes, and foreign exchange shortages. These challenges seem not to have been tackled with flight ticket charges almost at N100,000 in May 2023.
