By Fred Chukwuelobe.
Firstly, let me state that whoever made that call is entitled to his opinion. He has every right to express himself, however mischievous that may be. It is left for those reading him to interrogate his post and ask basic questions as to the propriety or otherwise of such boycott call.
Secondly, let me make it clear that both airlines are owned by private companies and whose owners are free to run their companies the way they deem fit and proper. They set them up to provide services, provide employments, and make profits.
So long as they are not in contravention of our extant rules, nobody has the right to decide or to determine for them how they fix their fares, especially in a capitalist economy and in a highly regulated industry like aviation, which is at the whimsies of the fluctuations in our currency and heavily dependent on the USD.
They wear the shoes and so they know where they pinch the most.
Thirdly, let me state that this issue of high ticket fares keeps recurring every “ember” season and that all explanations by the airlines as to why have not assuaged the angers of such characters, who have remained unrelenting.
Now, the crux of the matter.
1. It is a known fact that every “ember” season transport fares to the South East are usually very high. Costs of other items also go high. This has been the case for many years even before the coming of these airlines. The transporters, most of whom are Igbos, have always insisted that they increase their transport fares during this period because they load fully to the South East and return almost empty. They say that to cover the cost of return; the fuel costs, overhead costs, and vehicle maintenance costs, they double the onward fares.
2. The same logic has been cited by these airlines to justify the high ticket prices during the Yuletide. The aircraft are loaded fully to the South East airports of Anambra, Enugu, Owerri, and the South South of Asaba. They aircraft then return almost empty to Lagos. They pay the same charges on Jet A-1 (aviation gasoline), landing/parking charges, tax surcharges, charges by regulatory agencies like FAAN, NCAA. The charges are not reduced because the aircraft return almost empty; they remain the same. So, where will the airline get the money to pay for these charges without running at a loss? From the high costs for one way, of course.
3. During this period, air traffic is largely one-way as in the case of road transport. Therefore, the airlines charge high to defray the costs of empty return and to continue to fly safely and profitably. If they do not do this, they will incur heavy losses after the season.
4. When you buy a ticket at N355,000 one way, please note that the airlines are not the ones taking that money. The large chuck of it goes to taxes, as charges by the regulatory agencies. What comes to the airline from that ticket fare could be about N120,000.
However, there are some points made by many people, which require proper explanation. They argue that airlines like Ibom Air owned by the Akwa Ibom State Government charges less for some of the same routes during the same period; that fares do not increase for flights on Northern routes during Sallah; that the South East States are charged more and the fares paid by Igbo people are used to subsidize that of the Northern routes. Disingenuous!
They want to know why that is. “Does Ibom Air not pay the same charges? Why do they not increase their ticket fares as well?” They ask. These allegations are not true. They are made by people who do not have in-depth knowledge of how the fares are calculated and aviation politics.
Now, this is where it gets interesting.
1. Fares are fed into the computer and the computer adjustes them as more people buy tickets. In line with the economies of demand and supply, the more tickets that are bought, the higher the next set of tickets. If fares keep increasing and two people flying the same route may notice that they did not pay the same fares.
2. During Sallah, the airlines get filled up quickly and the fares also rise. But the flights are not as frequent and as one way as those of the South East/South South routes because other people who have businesses up North still travel within the period, and the Sallah movement is not as frequent as that of the Yuletide, which lasts for about two weeks.
3. These our brothers have no reason to exploit us. Absolutely no reason at all! They’re running the businesses in a manner that they will not fold up and to be profitable.
4. Instead of calling for “Igbo people to boycott them,” let the person making the call boycott them on his own.
5. I cannot in all honesty tell a businessman whose business I neither control nor subsidize how to charge for his services.
6. Most importantly, many of those flights to the North, I understand, are subsidized by their respective state governments to keep the airlines coming and the airports functioning. Without these two airlines, some of, if not all, the airports up North will remain unexploited except seasonally for Sallah and Hajj.
7. Ibom Air is owned by Akwa Ibom State Government, which may also be subsidizing the airline during this period for them to compete with big players like Air Peace and United Nigeria. They will not come out publicly to tell us this and only their auditors will know this.
8. Our brothers cannot subsidize their airlines to please us and absorb the losses to the detriment of their businesses.
9. There are alternatives to traveling in the world and in this country. Let those like this faceless campaigner and any aggrieved person take them and stop this campaign of calumny. It is in bad taste and duplicitous.
10. I do not know why some of us are like this. No person of Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani, Akwa Ibom, Tiv, or of other tribes will openly call on their people to boycott businesses owned by one of them. Instead, they will massively line behind them and defend them even if in narrow-minded terms.
11. It is the same victim mentality that some of us display each time things do not seem to be going the way we want it, and in the process make the Igbo nation look weak before the rest of Nigeria.
12. Tell me, why would any sensible Igbo person pen such a distasteful post and share it? Is it to trend? For what purpose? Does this person run a business?
13. For all I care, this fellow may not be planning on flying to the South East but is out to cause mischief. This is typical ‘Pull Him Down syndrome,’ which many of us are guilty of.
14. A Northern friend of mine, who read the “boycott call,” spoke to me with so much anger. He asked, “What is wrong with your people. Why are you people always fighting yourselves? Is it that you guys hate yourselves as to purposely run down your brothers businesses? Even if these airlines are guilty of what is written, is this call the best way to address it?”
15. My response: “The guy is free to boycott the airlines. Neither my family nor I will join him. If I can’t pay the high prices, I will drive and face the road with its consequences. Alternatively, I will stay in my house here in the city and celebrate Christmas.”
16. This is what I also say to this faceless boycott campaigner and his supporters. I add that my prayer is that the airlines have not recorded any fatalities since their inception. May the Great Architet of the Universe continue to guard them towards safe flying so that as they fly to unite, let them do so in peace and safety.
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