The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) may face significant headwinds in fulfilling its pledge to slash airfares in early January of 2026, BusinessDay’s findings show.
While the regional body intends to stimulate the sector by abolishing air ticket taxes, the inherent complexity of aviation pricing – comprising various volatile cost drivers – threatens the feasibility of this timeline.
The policy shift was recently articulated by Chris Appiah, ECOWAS director of Transport and Communications, during the ECOWAS Council of Ministers meeting in Abuja.
Read also: ECOWAS orders 25% cut in air transport charges from January 2026
Appiah noted that the directive, sanctioned by the Authority of Heads of States and Governments in December 2024, is the culmination of years of technical analysis.
These studies confirmed a sobering reality: West Africa currently grapples with the highest airfares on the continent. This disparity is largely attributed to several government-imposed levies and aviation charges that inflate the cost of travel across the sub-region.
However, the BusinessDay’s findings reveals that removing taxes is only a partial solution.
Beyond regulatory fees, the architecture of a ticket price is dictated by heavy insurance premiums which are often exacerbated by perceived regional instability, alongside the fluctuating costs of aviation fuel and the persistent volatility of foreign exchange (FX) rates.
The Nigerian market serves as a stark example of these pressures. Local airlines are currently burdened by insurance costs that far outstrip those of their counterparts in Ghana or South Africa.
Industry operators indicate that Nigeria’s classification as a high-risk environment, coupled with the steep premiums demanded by domestic underwriters, has fundamentally skewed the cost structure for local carriers.
BusinessDay found that while Nigerian airlines pay between eight percent and 10 percent of the value of an aircraft to insure it, airlines operating in Ghana, South Africa and other African countries pay two percent to three percent.
Also, the high cost of trucking aviation fuel (Jet A1) to airports significantly adds to airline operating expenses, directly causing higher air ticket prices for passengers, especially in regions like Nigeria where supply chain issues, forex rates, and logistics make fuel expensive, accounting for up to 40 percent of airline costs.
Also, international airfares on Nigerian routes have continued to increase as a result of the high exchange rate in the country.
John Ojikutu, CEO of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, told BusinessDay that without a common currency and a robust regional intercontinental carrier, ECOWAS’s efforts will face limitations.
“My take about this ECOWAS intention is that it will be a herculean task for states that provide intervention funds or subsidies to the government and private operators in their countries to sustain local operations, not to talk of additional international operations,” he explained.
Read also: ECOWAS to scrap air ticket taxes from January 2026 to cut airfare costs
Seyi Adewale, CEO of Mainstream Cargo Limited, highlighted factors that could help reduce airfares, including high load factors, efficient supply chains, and targeted duty and tax waivers.
“There are other critical factors that can nip off 0.5 percent, 1.0 percent here and there such as efficiency of the airline’s supply chain, exchange rate, duty and taxes waivers. For example, the federal government waived completely the four percent FOB charge for commercial airlines, retention of zero percent duty and value added tax (VAT) exemption despite the new tax policy being significant,” Adewale explained.
Samuel Caulcrick, former Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, stressed that ECOWAS’s intervention would require legislative adjustments in Nigeria, such as reviewing charges such as Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC). He added that access to low-cost capital for airlines, underpinned by strong corporate governance, is critical for the success of any regional airfare reduction initiative.
