Airfares will continue to rise as naira depreciates – AOPAN President

Airfares out of the Nigerian request would continue to rise inasmuch as the country’s currency, naira, continues to cheapen.

Alex Nwuba, the President, of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Nigeria( AOPAN) in an interview with intelligencers observed that the junction of the exchange rate was yet to save the naira from worsening.

He explained that airfares have remained the same in bones , but the harmonious collapse of the naira against major currencies led to the high airfare rates being endured in Nigeria.

The AOPAN President also observed that charges, impositions and handling rates out of Nigeria remained high when compared to other countries, especially in the West African countries, stressing that these contributed to the high rates.

He rued that Nigeria has continued to lose businesses to other neighbouring African countries, especially Ghana due to high impositions and charges and appealed to the government to cut down on some of these charges in order to embrace further air trippers .

He said “ It’s only egregious mathematically that airfares would increase because the value of naira has dropped, charges have increased and it’s only egregious that the charges would increase. Airlines do n’t only have to look at the exchange rates as it’s moment because they buy tickets and get plutocrat in the future.

“ So, they’ve a protuberance of what direction the naira would go and that’s reflected in the airfares that we’re seeing.

still, you’ll see that the increase isn’t coming from the airfares themselves, but coming from the exchange rate and so these are the factors that are contributing to the increased fares that Nigerians have to pay and obviously, “ If you still do the same airfares and price them in bones .

“ Doing business out of Nigeria is veritably precious. Departure duty, particular service charges, handling charges and others get added to the ticket.

“ To actually look down at your preferred breakdown on your ticket, you’ll find out that the charges are veritably high and so this is impacting on the prices. ”

On the allegation of some airlines pricing tickets in bones , Nwuba said that airfares are always priced in bones , but vended at the fellow of naira.

He explained that before the junction of the exchange rate, the foreign airlines were still getting bones at the sanctioned rates, but said the current policy had stopped all that.

“ We got it at request– controlled rates originally when the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) established its own policy rate. Everybody was taking advantage of that. Now, we’ve unified the exchange rate.

“ The chow is still the same chow in bones , but what you observe in aeronautics is that prices are grounded on the request. ”