Nigerian Airline operators’ Local flights’ suspension update

Are Nigerian airline operators, in actual fact, embarking on the proposed local flight operations shutdown? The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported, that Nigerian airlines, under the auspices of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), announced plans to shut down operations from Monday due to the high cost of aviation fuel. The news broke out last week, via premium times and other news outlets in the country on Friday, 6th May 2022.

However, reports reaching the general public on Monday 9th of May, 2022 confirm that this planned shutdown has been called off. All the airlines involved have withdrawn their planned shutdown of flights. This implies that all flights scheduled to depart from the proposed shutdown date will operate as usual.

The reason for this planned shutdown was due to an increase in the cost of Jetfuel from 190 Naira, to 700 Naira. Some of the carriers that were to be affected by this shutdown included Air peace, Arik Air, etc.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, was reported to have pleaded with the Nigerian airlines to suspend their planned shutdown of operations. The airlines said the suspension followed intervention by the government with promises to dialogue with operators in seeking lasting solutions to the sky-high rise in the price of aviation fuel.

All flight schedules will continue as usual until otherwise stated in the news.

You can proceed to book your flights here.

How this increase in aviation fuel affects flight prices:

Economists and trends analysts predict that flight prices may increase by more than 100% in the near future. Airline operators have had to shoulder a lot of running costs, thereby running at a possible near loss. This makes way for eventual business failure and shutdown. The airlines say that cannot continue to bear these costs as it is unsustainable for the aviation business in Nigeria.

So far, there have been noticeable changes in flight prices, aside from the first 100% increase done earlier in the year. Even though statisticians’ predictions have local flight prices increase from 50,000 Naira to about 120,000 Naira for one-way tickets.

Our Predictions and recommendations:

We, at Allmyview, recommend that this is the best time to book your local flights and trips as flight prices have remained at the current amount. The airlines are still in talks with the government, and the result of this conversation is highly uncertain.