Domestic airlines have raised the number of aircraft seats as part of initiatives to combat high operating expenses in the aviation sector, enabling more people to commute while they also boost the revenue.
In an exclusive interview with a media outlet, Susan Akporiaye, the president of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies, addressed the impact of the lack of foreign currency. She revealed that the new development was one of the coping mechanisms used by airline owners to expand the capacity of their airlines in the face of declining revenue.
According to her, despite being less expensive, the lower seats will increase the average number of passengers every departure and result in reduced per-seat expenses.
She stated: “Nothing has changed in the operating costs yet due to the fluctuating exchange rate, which is affecting our operating costs. The only thing that has changed is that airlines are beginning to release the lower seats now. Some of them have started releasing lower seats.
“Earlier, the airlines stopped selling off all the cheap classes and were only selling the expensive ones. The airlines had cut off all the cheap seats and were selling only the expensive ones because of the trapped fund issue but now that the rate of exchange is high. Most of them are releasing the cheap seats to get more revenue to remain afloat in the business.”
Even though Festus Keyamo, the minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, had pledged to address the sector’s problems, analysts noted that ineffective policy and regulation implementation was the industry’s biggest problem.
In the meantime, Group Capt. John Ojikutu, the Chief Executive Officer of Centurion Security, demanded that the appropriate authorities conduct a full investigation of the commercial aviation sector in order to ascertain the financial stability of all airlines.
