Hike in Airfares for International Route
The agitations by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), for an increase in the airfare of international routes, have finally received the nod of the federal government.
The last increase in airfare in the country was granted seven years ago, and since then, the federal government has maintained a hard-line posture on the issue of further increment of
airfares. It is therefore surprising what informed the sudden change of stance by the federal government. The foreign carriers under the umbrella of IATA, according to officials of the aviation ministry, forced government to review its hard-line posture
following threat by the body to remove the country from the Tariff Conference. The argument is that since Nigeria is a member of the tariff conference zone, any agreed charges in airfares within that conference, becomes binding on government, and as such,
government is obliged to accept the increase in fares.
The new fare which takes effect immediately, is up by as much as 80 per cent, which means that a traveler to London for instance, would have to part with a whopping 300,000 Naira as against
previous fare of 128,000 Naira for business class. This increase is seen by many, as too high, and others see it as a deliberate move by government to stem the high rate of fleeing by its nationals to seek better living in other countries.
The argument by aviation ministry officials that market forces will bring down the fares as a result of competition is condemned by some pessimists who feel market forces have never worked
in the past, and will therefore not work with the case of the airfares citing instances such as the GSM call rates which in spite of the �market forces� have remained high.
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