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•As AFRAA projects 98m passengers for African carriers in 2024
By Chinelo Obogo
Following sky-high prices of flight tickets for domestic and international travels, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has promised to intervene in the matter, with a view to bringing relief to airlines and passengers alike.
In a statement posted on the NCAA’s official X handle, the acting Director General of the regulatory agency, Capt. Chris Najomo, said a committee has been set up to help crash airfares.
Daily Sun had earlier reported that due to the fact foreign airlines operating in Nigeria have been unable to repatriate the revenue generated from the sale of tickets, they blocked their lower inventories to travelers who wish to buy tickets from Nigeria. This, according to Yinka Folami, a travel consultant who spoke to Daily Sun, is one of the reasons why the cost of international flight is high.
Capt. Najomo however, said the agency has met with airlines, other agencies and stakeholders and would make sure that the issue is promptly addressed.
“It has come to the notice of this Authority about the increase and high cost of air fare, especially on the international route. With the view to ensuring that the air fares are brought down, NCAA has set up a committee which would look at all the variances with how we can bring down the air fares. We have met with the airlines, other agencies and stakeholders and we would make sure that this is done,” Najomo said.
Meanwhile, the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), has projected that African airlines would carry 98 million passengers in 2024. In its airline performance report released on Monday, the association said that since November 2023, traffic carried by African airlines exceeded the 2019 levels and in January 2023, African airlines RPKs were 2.06% above the level of the same month in 2019 while ASKs were 7.1% above.
“According to AFRAA estimates, African airlines will carry around 98 million passengers in 2024. Regarding cargo, 149.6 million Kgs were moved to/from Africa in November 2023, among which African airlines represented 30.8%.
“At some major African airports (Johannesburg, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Lusaka, Cairo, Casablanca, Abidjan and Lagos), intra-Africa connectivity reached or exceeded pre-Covid level since December 2022.
“AFRAA predicts that 2023 will see an increase in airline revenues and the narrowing of revenue gap compared to 2022. The full year 2023 revenue shortfall of African airlines will be around US$200m or less, compared to 2019 full year. The 2022 full year passenger’s revenue gap was US$3.5 billion for all African airlines combined, compared to 2019,” AFRAA said.
