To compete with Air Peace, which recently started flying on the route, foreign airlines have further reduced their airfares on the Lagos-London route.
Air Peace launched direct flights from Lagos to London on March 30, charging N1.2 million for a round-trip economy ticket on a route where other airlines were charging up to N3 million.
Foreign airlines reduced their round-trip economy ticket prices to an average of ₦1.4 million last week as a result of the Nigerian airline’s move, which analysts and stakeholders had predicted.
Investigations conducted on Wednesday revealed that a few international airlines have further reduced their costs to an average of ₦841,732.
As of Wednesday when most flights’ rates were checked, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria‘s exchange rate of N1246/$1, Egyptair has further reduced the price of its economy ticket from Lagos to London to ($470) ₦585,620; Virgin Atlantic ($927.99) ₦1.1m; Royal Air Morocco ($456.99) ₦569,422; British Airways ($787.99) ₦981, 848 and Air Peace London ($655) ₦816, 130 are the current prices for flights to Lagos.
RwandAir has pegged airfare to ($545.35) ₦679,070; Ethiopian Air ($543.84) ₦677, 824; Turkish Airlines ($647.84) ₦807, 408; Air France London ($915.99) ₦1.1m while KLM pegged its price to ($927.84) ₦1.1m.
This development has meant that as of the first week of April this year, a one-way ticket from Lagos-London cost between ₦1.03m and ₦1.3m despite the exchange rates being as high as ₦1,250 per dollar.