Price war in the Nigerian aviation industry
Domestic airlines in the country are currently battling to win more passengers to be at the top of competition through the offer of cheaper airfares.
The airline owners often introduce promotional airfares to commemorate certain festive seasons or holidays like Valentine, Easter among others to woo passengers in order to continue to gain their confident and patronage.
Within the last few months, most domestic airlines operating in the country rolled out promotional fares during the St. Valentine and the Easter celebrations.
Air Peace used the Valentine period to woo passengers as it introduced the N16, 000 flight tickets to travel onboard the airline to any destination in the country. It achieved result as its market share increased.
The move led to other airlines like Imo Air, operated by Dana Airline, slashing the prices of its airfares. The airline went a step further to give out free tickets and as well as upgrading to silver and gold membership tier of the airline’s passengers.
During the last Easter celebration, it was Arik Airline’s turn as it rolled out a N16, 000 promotional fares to woo customers and passengers flying to any destination within the country.
Dana Air on several occasions placed its promotional fares ranging from N9, 000 to N15, 000 online, while Medview and AZMAN airlines also engaged in some aspects of promotions.
Investigation conducted by MARKETINGEDGE to know about the recent trend in the Nigerian aviation industry shows that the prices are competitive but unstable and depends to a large extent on the demand and supply forces.
MARKETINGEDGE found out that all morning flights between 6:40am and 7:30am to various destinations across the country are usually expensive, particularly, on routes such as Abuja, Port-Harcourt and Lagos because of the high demand for tickets.
For instance, 7:00am flight on Medview from Lagos to Abuja Mondays is pegged at N34, 000 while 7:40am flight goes for N29, 000 and that of 8:50am is N26, 000.
Arik Air sells its flight ticket for N33, 500 for 7:00am flight while the airline’s 8:00am flight goes for N31, 000. On Lagos to Port-Harcourt route, a flight for 8:00am on Arik Air goes for N28, 500 while for 10:00am it is N26, 000.
Dana Airline tickets is sold for N26,600 from Lagos to Abuja for its 7:45am flight while the airline’s 3:00pm flight on the same route goes for N25, 200. It also flies from Lagos to Port Harcourt for N27, 900 for its 7:00am flight while its 11:00am flight goes for N25, 200.
Lagos to Abuja on Air Peace Airline for 7:00am flight is N31, 500 while that of AZMAN Airline goes for N32, 000.
A counter attendant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told MARKETETING EDGE that domestic airlines do not have a fix airfare, stressing that tickets are sold based on the demand and inflow of passengers.
According to him, most of the morning flights are expensive because most travellers want to catch up with their appointments or even resume work at various destinations across the country.
He noted that at noon and towards evenings, airfares often come down as there are few passengers, adding that the airlines, as a ploy to woo passengers, reduce their prices to stay competitive.
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