Emirates Airlines Crashes Ticket Fares on Lagos to London Route to Rival Air Peace, Others

• Ahead of its scheduled flights from Lagos to Dubai, Emirates Airlines has opened cheaper ticket prices in dollars
• The airline announced that it would resume flight operations from Nigeria on October 1 after two years 
• The airline's ticket prices are competitive but have drawn mixed reactions from analysts and Nigerian passengers

Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.

Emirates Airlines is luring Nigerian passengers with cheap USD airfares, which has attracted mixed reactions from aviation analysts and passengers.

Findings show that as of Monday, August 26, 2024, all fare inventories on Emirates Airlines’ website were competitive but priced in dollars.

Emirates to resume flights after two years

The airline had fixed October 1, 2024, as the date to resume daily flights between Lagos and Dubai, offering more choice and connectivity from the Nigerian city to and from Dubai.

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The airline suspended operations in Nigeria in August 2022 because it could not repatriate $85 million in revenue trapped in the country.

However, following clearing the FX backlog by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the airline announced it would resume flight operations in the country.

The airline’s service will be operated using a Boing 777-300-ER.EK783 will depart Dubai at 045 hrs and arrive in Lagos at 1520 hrs. The return flight, EK784, will depart Lagos at 1730 hrs and arrive in Dubai at 0510 hrs the next day.

Lagos to London: Ticket prices per airline

According to BusinessDay, a return economy class ticket from Lagos to London Heathrow on KLM costs about N2.3 million, Air France at N2.2 million; Ethiopian Airlines at N2.7 million, Egypt Air at N2.7 million, and Virgin Atlantic at N3.2 million.

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A return business class ticket from Lagos to London Heathrow aboard Royal Air Maroc costs N5.7 million, Air Peace at N6.5 million, Turkish Airlines at N6.9 million, Egypt Air at N7.1 million, and Qatar Airways at N7.4 million.

Meanwhile, a return economy class ticket from Lagos to London Heathrow aboard Emirates costs about $1.130, amounting to N1.83 million, while the same ticket costs about $4.290, amounting to N4.9 million.

Reports say an economy-class return ticket from Lagos to Dubai on Emirates costs $987, or N1.59 million at the exchange rate of N1,620 per dollar.

A business class return ticket from Lagos to Dubai on Emirates costs about $4.418, about N7.1 million.

A return economy class ticket from Lagos to Dubai on Turkish Airlines is around N1.63 million, Kenya Airways costs about N1.7 million, Egypt Air about 1.3 million; Qatar Airways costs about N1.3 million, Ethiopian Airlines goes for N1.5 million, and Emirates at N1.7 million.

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A return business class ticket from Lagos to Dubai on Egypt Air costs about N4.1 million; Kenya Airways costs N4.8 million, Qatar Airways costs N4.97 million, Turkish Airlines costs N4.98 million, and Ethiopian Airlines costs N5 million. 

Experts express mixed feelings

Travel expert and CEO of Good Winds Travels and Tours, Henry Uche, expressed mixed feelings about Emirates USD pricing for flights from Nigeria.

He said that the airline’s return to the Nigerian airspace is a welcome development but argued that it would not have opened the tickets in foreign currency.

“The development will further pressure the naira as the country is battling FX fluctuations, negatively impacting the local currency.

“What the airline should have done is to open the tickets in the local currency’s dollar equivalent.”

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The airline said this aligns with its plan to recruit an additional 5,000 cabin crew members for its new fleet of Airbus A350s in 2024.

In a statement, the airline said the opportunity is open to fresh graduates with internships or part-time jobs on their resumes but with at least one year of experience in hospitality or customer service.

Proofread by Kola Muhammed, journalist and copyeditor at Legit.ng

Source: Legit.ng