The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has uncovered patterns of price manipulation by some domestic airlines during the December 2025 festive season, raising fresh concerns about consumer exploitation and competition in Nigeria’s aviation sector, according to an interim review released by the agency on Thursday.
It said the development raises fresh concerns over consumer exploitation and market competition in Nigeria’s aviation sector.
The interim report released by the Commission’s Department of Surveillance and Investigations, followed an industry-wide probe announced in January.
According to the report, preliminary analysis of data obtained from local airlines showed that ticket fares during the festive peak were significantly higher than post-peak levels in January 2026, despite relative stability in key operating variables such as aviation fuel, government taxes and foreign exchange.
The Commission, in a statement signed by its Director of Corporate Affairs, Ondaje Ijagwu, on Thursday, said the forensic exercise compared domestic pricing trends during the December festive rush with subsequent fare levels.
It noted that the differences observed in ticket prices appeared to reflect airlines’ discretionary pricing decisions rather than external cost pressures.
The statement read in part, “A review undertaken by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has uncovered patterns of price manipulation perpetrated by some local airlines during the last festive season.
“The forensic exercise benefitted from data collated by the Commission from airlines operating local routes in the country. The report compares domestic airline pricing from the December 2025 festive period with post-peak January 2026 fare levels.
“Preliminary analysis indicates that fares recorded during the December peak were materially higher than those observed in the post-peak period across several routes, despite relative stability in critical operating variables like fuel price, government taxes and foreign exchange.
“The differences observed in fares therefore appear to reflect airlines’ arbitrary pricing decisions, including yield management and capacity allocation, rather than any variation in regulatory fees.”
The Commission said route-level analysis showed that fare increases coincided with periods of reduced seat availability during predictable seasonal demand peaks, suggesting deliberate supply constraints.
It added that on high-density routes, peak fares were often clustered within narrow ranges across several operators, a pattern that may indicate coordinated behaviour.
“For instance, on certain corridors such as Abuja–Port Harcourt, peak fares were several times higher than corresponding post-peak levels. On selected routes, the difference in the price of a single ticket reached approximately N405,000,” the report stated.
It further noted that median fares across sampled routes rose sharply during the festive window compared with January benchmarks.
However, the Commission acknowledged that seasonal demand, fleet utilisation, and scheduling constraints could also affect pricing during peak travel periods, noting that, “these factors remain under consideration as part of the Commission’s ongoing review.”
The PUNCH