At N524,000 Return Ticket, Local Airline Operators Say Nigeria Has World’s Cheapest Airfares

Despite return fares on some domestic routes having risen as high as N524,000, local airline operators have insisted that Nigeria still has some of the cheapest airfares in the world, attributing the apparent contradiction to the need to keep tickets affordable for passengers amid rising operating costs.

As of Sunday, September 13, 2026, a basic return ticket on Air Peace from Lagos to Abuja stood at N524,000, while the airline’s Lagos-Anambra return fare was N466,000.

For Aero Contractors, a basic return ticket on the Lagos-Abuja route was N258,000, while the Lagos-Port Harcourt route was N317,000.

Similarly, a return ticket on United Nigeria Airlines from Lagos to Abuja was N277,000, while the Lagos-Enugu route cost N462,000.

The fares come against the backdrop of sustained complaints by domestic airlines about rising operating costs, driven by the floating of the naira, inflation, high aviation fuel prices, taxes and levies, and elevated interest rates.

Airline operators said the Gulf crisis had further pushed the price of aviation fuel, also known as Jet-A1, to about N3,000 per litre, adding to the financial burden on carriers.

Beyond fuel, airlines are also contending with the rising costs of aircraft maintenance, spare parts, insurance, foreign-exchange exposure, navigation and airport charges, personnel expenses, and other regulatory and operational costs.

However, operators said they could not simply transfer the full increase in operating costs to passengers without risking a sharp decline in patronage.

The dilemma, they explained, is particularly significant in Nigeria, where rising living costs have weakened passengers’ purchasing power and made road transportation an increasingly attractive alternative on routes where travel time and security conditions permit.

For domestic airlines, the challenge is compounded by the need to maintain high passenger load factors, as most operating costs remain fixed regardless of the number of passengers on board.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP on the sidelines of the 30th Annual Conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC), held in Lagos with the theme, “Towards a Sustainable Aviation Industry: Balancing Government Revenue Demands with Sector Growth,” the Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, maintained that Nigerian airlines were still offering some of the lowest fares compared with other parts of the world.

Okonkwo explained that the amount paid by passengers does not represent the actual revenue retained by airlines, as a significant portion goes to government agencies in the form of taxes, levies and other charges.

He said an airline selling a ticket for N350,000 could end up retaining only about N150,000 after statutory charges and other deductions.

“In aviation, there’s what we call yield. The yield means that on the same flight, you may have seen people who paid a 60-franc ticket price. So, at the end of the day, we’ll put it together.

“I can tell you that for every yield any Nigerian airline is making today, if you buy a ticket for N350,000 to one destination, that’s not the cost of the ticket for us on the back end.

“At the end of the day, we don’t get more than 150,000 when you make the yield, and you must have to make the yield. The yield covers the cost of the lower ticket, the mid-ticket, and even perishable seats, the empty seats on the aircraft.

“That’s the rule. It’s a standard formula. So, the rates are still maintained. Our fares in Nigeria are still the lowest compared with any part of the world,” he stated.

Also speaking, a former managing director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Capt. Roland Iyayi, said domestic airlines were being forced to walk a precarious financial tightrope between recovering from escalating operating costs and keeping airfares within passengers’ reach.

Iyayi, who is also the chief executive officer of Top Brass Aviation Limited, warned that if domestic carriers fully reflected prevailing operational costs in their ticket prices, air travel could become unaffordable for a large segment of Nigerians, potentially resulting in lower passenger traffic.

He said airlines were caught between the need to charge economically viable fares and the reality of a market where passengers were already struggling with rising living costs.

According to him, carriers have little choice but to strike a delicate balance between keeping their aircraft sufficiently occupied and recovering the cost of operating flights.

He stressed that airlines could not simply transfer the full burden of increased operating expenses to passengers without risking a significant decline in patronage.

“If domestic airlines actually fix or set their fares based on the parameters that we currently face, there won’t be people able to fly because the fares will be too high. So domestic airlines have to maintain a precarious balance between filling the aircraft and recovering their costs. It’s a precarious balance at all times.”

“So invariably, if domestic airlines are able to fix fares or set fares to reflect the current economic climate, it will be almost impossible for people to fly. So that’s a challenge that airlines are facing,” Iyayi stated.