There has been a lot of talk about the cost of flights out of our very own MMA to London. There has been even more high level posturing between officials on both sides of the divide, with even our own GEJ and the British prime minister weighing in with veiled and open threats. InsideLagos has watched with amusement this ongoing debate which has generated a lot of copy for the newspapers.
The truth is, with all the bruhaha about exploitation and neocolonialism, this root cause of the source of our umbrage can be found in any class of economics 101. Remember the lesson on supply and demand or where you to busy doodling or staring out of the window at playing field outside? Well if you paid attention it would be clear to see that is what drives this outcome, nothing else. What hasn't been highlighted is that economy seats are the same price or even slightly cheaper from Lagos to London than from Accra, even though we have a higher tax rate on our fares. The situation is reversed slightly with the premium seats, and by the time we get to business class, one then sees the disparity that has everyone is up in arms. The reality is that we have too many government officials going on frivolous trips in business and first class seats paid for by our Naira and Kobo, accompanied with a retinue of personal advisers and security operatives in the seats just behind them. We have too many companies flying staff around on leave and business, also in these expensive seats, eroding shareholder value with every air mile flown.
To start with we need more prudent policies on travel in government and private companies alike. We also need to expand our key airports (refurbishment is nice, but not enough) and create more landing slots to bring in more competition. Lastly we need to support our local airlines by patronage and promotion, to ensure more of our travel spend is retained in the local economy.
So how was your day Lagos?
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