Emirates breaks no sweat, hits 75% load factor on Lagos route four months after resumption

• Love for Dubai, strong hub, others, factors for strong start

Less than five months after resuming flights, Emirates has continued ramping up capacity on the lucrative Dubai-Lagos route as the carrier enjoys a 75% load factor.

This disclosure was made by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane in his analysis of aviation around the globe including events in Nigeria’s aviation industry.

The success of the Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) based airline on the Lagos route after two years of returning to the route on October 1, 2024, has shown the tremendous work the handlers of the airlines to recover its market from stiff competitors like Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar and Kenya Airways in just less than five months.

The airline’s strong connections, a very functional hub in Dubai, the attraction of Dubai to many Nigerian travellers for business and leisure and the strong brand of the carrier have helped to attract passengers to the airline.

The inability of Nigeria’s flag carrier, Air Peace to resume flight services either to Sharjah or Dubai makes Emirates to be the sole carrier that flies directly from Dubai to Lagos including the attractive offer from the airline to its customers.

Although many consider the Nigerian carrier not to be a strong competitor to Emirates because of its point-to-point operation, its absence however left a vacuum for which the UAE carrier has consolidated its stronghold on the market.

President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Mr. Yinka Afolami told Aviation Metric that there are so many factors responsible for the success of the carrier on the Lagos route.

He attributed it to Nigerians’ love for Dubai and the good connection of the airline worldwide.

He said, “There are many factors responsible for this. This is propelled by Nigerians’ love for Dubai especially for many people for business and leisure. They have good connections to the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Emirates is a loved airline. It was just a fallout between the two governments that made them stop flights to Nigeria. There is also local capacity”.

Rewane equally noted that Qatar Airways is offering discounts on the transatlantic routes while United Airlines is in direct competition with Delta Airline in the US direct flights to Lagos; an indication of the serious competition among carriers for the huge Nigeria’s international airline market further leading to the erosion of the market.

Many of the Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA) between Nigeria and over 80 other countries are Nigeria’s disadvantage because aside from Air Peace which offers a modicum of reciprocity, the entire market is lopsided as many of the country’s airlines cannot reciprocate the BASA deals.

Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is forecasting improved airline profits for 2025.

The clearing house for more than 300 global airlines expects that African carriers will achieve $  0.2 billion profit in 2025 with a net $1.00 profit per passenger.

This pales into insignificance as the Middle East will achieve 7.7% in 2025.

In all, in 2025, industry revenues will exceed $1 trillion for the first time. It’s also important to put that into perspective. A trillion dollars is a lot, almost 1% of the global economy. That makes airlines a strategically important industry.

‘But remember that airlines carry $940 billion in costs, not to mention interest and taxes. They retain a net profit margin of just 3.6%.

“Put another way, the buffer between profit and loss, even in the good year we expect in 2025, is just $7 per passenger. With margins that thin, airlines must continue to watch every cost and insist on similar efficiency across the supply chain, especially from our monopoly infrastructure suppliers who often let us down on performance and efficiency,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director-General.

Wole Shadare