Any airline selling tickets at less than $100 for one-way flight in the domestic scene cannot earn a profit, Grp. John Ojikutu (retd) has said.
Ojikutu in an interview with journalists in Lagos said that flights from Lagos to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Calabar, Kaduna, Enugu and others should not be cheaper than N45, 000, stressing that underpricing, not overcharging from government agencies and organisations was responsible for the early collapse of most of the indigenous carriers.
He said: “Factor the domestic passengers’ tickets in dollar rate to the naira; this has been suggested since 1989. Ticket was about N3,800/N4,000 or $100 Lagos Abuja when the dollar was N40/$. How many airlines charge $100 or N45,000 at the dollar rate of N450/$ today?
“Any airline that charges less than $100 or N45,000 for flight to Abuja or for such same distance to Enugu, PH, Owerri, Calabar, Kaduna and others should not go fighting the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) for their operational losses or seeks government financial interventions.”
Ojikutu also charged the National Assembly to stop the multiple destinations granted foreign carriers operating into Nigeria with the ongoing amendment to the Civil Aviation Act 2006.
Ojikutu argued that foreign airlines should either be granted rights to operate into either Lagos or Abuja, not to Lagos and Abuja airports, adding that they could be allowed to operate to any other one or two at the alternate geographical area.
He called on the government to compel foreign airlines to codeshare with indigenous airlines on the routes they could not operate to directly, rather than allowing them unrestricted access to multiple airports in the country.
