The average fare paid by air passengers for a specified single route journey increased by N28,236 to N65,042, Year-on-Year, YoY, as at August 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has said. This is a 77 per cent increase from N36,805 paid by passengers in the corresponding period of August 2021.

The NBS made this disclosure in its transport fare watch report for August 2022.

The report also showed that air passengers flying to Delta and Adamawa states paid the highest for tickets at N76,000 and N70,500 respectively for specified routes on a single journey by August 2022.

According to the report, "The average fare paid by air passengers for specified routes single journey, increased by 6.96 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N60,811.76 in July 2022 to N65,041.89 in August 2022.

"On a year-on-year basis, the fare rose by 76.72 per cent from 36,805.41 in August 2021."

On state profile analysis, the report stated that, "In August 2022, Delta had the highest air transport fare (for specified routes single journey) with N76,000.00, followed by Adamawa with N70,500,00, while Jigawa, Nasarawa, Osun, Niger and Gombe recorded the least with N60,000.00 each."

In the distribution of transport fare categories by zone, the report stated that the South-South recorded the highest air transport fare in August 2022 with N67,366.67, followed by the North-East with N66,950.00, while the North-Central had the least with N62,235.71. Meanwhile, a survey on flight tickets by Vanguard showed that passengers are now paying as much as N200,000 for a return Lagos-Abuja ticket; while Lagos-Kano return is between N150,000 and N200,000 depending on the time of booking.

Abuja-Kano flight on Max Air is between N74,000 and N100,000; while it is between N74,000 and N80,000 on Air Peace. Also on Max Air, Abuja-Maiduguri is N90,000 and Lagos-Kaduna on Azman Air for a Wednesday flight, N130,000. A one-way Lagos-Abuja fare is now N80,000 and could be as high as N150,000 if the travel date is in 24 hours.