THE Spokesperson for the Airline Operators of Nigeria and Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Obiora Okonkwo has said that with the increase in cost operations, an air ticket from Lagos to Abuja should cost N250 thousand.
He said this in an Exclusive interview on AriseTv.
He said: “If you think tickets are expensive, then you probably don’t appreciate the sacrifices made by local operators. If we have to charge the fares, the way the costs are increasing every day, we should be paying not less than N250,000 from Lagos to Abuja”.
Going further Prof. Okonkwo highlighted the urgent need for local airlines to access foreign exchange through a designated window facilitated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
He called upon the newly appointed Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, to collaborate with other governmental bodies to identify and rectify obstructive elements within the system, which exacerbate the existing challenges.
Addressing the foreign exchange predicament, Okonkwo stated: “You have naira and you can’t convert it to the dollar. So, the solution to this is for our minister to understand that we need a special window with the CBN to access foreign exchange.”
