The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports that between January and June 2017, air passenger traffic across the nation's four major airports dropped significantly due to the impact of inflation. According to NBS, the passenger traffic dropped from 3,489,317 as of the end of December 2016 to 3,033,182 in June 2017.
The report explained that high inflation rate forced airfares up by a whopping 57.3% across major airports in the country including the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The reported further added that because of the increase in charges at the airports, passengers were forced to limit air travel to purely business and more urgent and important trips.
Excerpts of the report as gleaned from the Punch read;
“In the second quarter of 2017, overall passenger traffic increased by 21.06 per cent over the previous quarter but declined by 18.56 per cent year-on-year. Similarly, aircraft movement increased by 11.23 per cent in the second quarter of 2017 but declined by 20.4 per cent year-on-year.
This strong decline in passenger and aircraft movement can be attributed to high double-digit inflation during the second quarter, which averaged 16.53 per cent, thereby squeezing households’ baskets. In particular, airfares have grown on average 57.3 per cent in four major airports. During the period under review, air travel was largely restricted to necessary and business-related activities.”
