Keyamo promises airfare reduction

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has promised that there will be a reduction in airfares soon.

Keyamo said there was a shortage of planes by local operators to meet the growing demand for air travel, saying this led to a hike in fares.

The minister also acknowledged that local operators are facing numerous challenges, including a lack of access to aircraft, maintenance, and repair facilities, as well as difficulties in obtaining foreign exchange to purchase spare parts.

Airfares have been on the rise as the most trafficked route on the network, Lagos-Abuja, now has an average fare of N120,000 per passenger for an hour flight.

This translates to about $83 rise at the current exchange rate per passenger.

However, the minister assured that the government is taking steps to address these issues as talks are underway with aircraft manufacturers to acquire more planes to service both domestic and international routes.

“There is a shortage of aircraft in Nigeria to service routes, which I think is the major problem we are facing now. The local operators are struggling to cover their routes even locally, not to talk of our international routes.

“Lufthansa is coming here, we are not going to Frankfurt, we only managed to get the London route recently for Air Peace, and we are also pushing for them to take us to Heathrow,” he noted.

Many airlines have been having challenges servicing their planes due to the scarcity of dollars in the country.

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