The general secretary of the Aviation Round Table Initiative (ARTI), Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), has informed the Nigerians who travel by air to brace up for an increase in airfare over the floating of the naira.
Politics Nigeria reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has floated the naira thereby allowing market forces to determine its exchange rate to foreign currencies.
Ojikutu noted that with the rising dollar rate, there would be an increase in the operational cost of airlines due to maintenance of the aircraft which are carried out abroad.
Ojikutu, who is also the chief executive officer of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, said for airlines to meet the operational costs arising from fuel, dollar rate, low passengers, among others, airfare must increase.
According to him, the situation has made it difficult to get stable airfare now that there are too many variable costs on imported jet-A1 and the exchange rate on the dollar.
“I have repeatedly said that if airfare was $100 at a time the exchange rate was N40/$ and fuel was being refined locally, we should expect it more than triple now when the dollar rate has gone more than ten times and fuel is being imported,” Ojikutu told Leadership.
He further disclosed that since intervention from the government has stopped, airlines would rely solely on fares to survive.
