Since Air Peace commenced the Lagos to London flight operations, foreign airlines have continued to drop their fares.
Airlines such as British Airways (BA), Virgin Atlantic, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and others have continued to slash fares on the route as competition is seen to drive price war.
Earlier reports have it that following the appreciation of naira and the competition arising from Air Peace commencement of Lagos-London route, air fares from Nigeria to other countries have drop significantly.
Throughout last year to early this year, the naira depreciated aggressively, leading to a rise in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) rate for sales of ticket.
The IATA rate for ticket sales in Nigeria dropped from almost N1,800 a few months ago to now N1,468 to the dollar a few weeks ago and now to about N1,261 to a dollar, seeing the prices of tickets drop drastically across several destinations.
But beyond IATA ticket sales rate dropping, stakeholders believe that the continued slash of fares on the route by the airlines is an attempt to drive Air Peace away from the market, so they can continue to exploit Nigerians on the route.
Air Peace’s maiden flight to London which commenced on March 30, 2024 was fully booked by Nigerians who had since sought cheaper tickets to London.
The airline had pegged its economy class ticket at N1.2million, thereby slashing fares on the route.
According to the airline, a return economy class ticket goes for N1.2 million while a Return Business Class Ticket sells for N4 million naira, adding that Nigerians studying in the UK can now access their special 15 percent rebate on the already reduced economy fares.
In response, the BA quickly slashed its one way economy class ticket from Lagos to London from N3 million to N1.7million and Business Class ticket from N11million to N6.8million.
On Lufthansa, a one way economy class ticket from Lagos to London which also cost about N3 million and N9 million for Business class was slashed to N2 million for economy class and N6.5million for Business Class.
On Virgin Atlantic, the same destination which cost about N2 million for Economy, N5 million for Economy Premium and N12 million for Business Class was slashed to N1.5 million for Economy, N3 million for Premium and N6 million for Business Class.
Since Air Peace continued to get more patronage on the route, competing carriers have continued to ‘fight back’ by slashing fares by over 70 percent on the route.
Just two months ago, average cost of economy class ticket from Lagos to London for airlines connecting flights to London was about N2.5 million.
Checks on prices by most of the flights, as of Wednesday, April 10 show that a one-way economy class ticket on Egyptair has dropped its Lagos-London economy ticket price further to N585,620. Air Peace London to Lagos now goes for N816, 130, British Airways goes for ₦981, 848, Virgin Atlantic N1.1m, and Royal Air Moroc N569,422.
Also, RwandAir has pegged airfare to N679,070, Ethiopian Air N677, 824, Turkish Airlines N807, 408, Air France London N1.1m, while KLM pegged its price to N1.1m.
While foreign airlines denied that they did not bring down fares because of Air Peace but as a result of drop in foreign exchange rate, stakeholders won't have it. They keep the argument that the slash in ticket price by Air Peace on the London route played a significant role in the slash of prices by foreign airlines.
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