The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) says it will prohibit air ticket tax with a view to reducing airfares in all airports across the sub-region from Jan. 2026.
ECOWAS Director of Transport and Communications, Chris Appiah, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen on the sidelines of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers’ meeting on Wednesday in Abuja.
Appiah explained that the move was part of a sweeping regional policy that was approved by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government since Dec. 2024.
According to him, the decision aims to make air travel more affordable and deepen subregional economic integration, adding that high airfares were driven largely by government taxes and aviation charges.
He said the decision was taken after about 10 years of studies confirmed that West Africa has the most expensive air transport services on the continent.
“If you buy a typical ticket in West Africa on any of the airlines, you realise that about 64 per cent, sometimes it will be 70 per cent, of the ticket price, is as a result of taxes and charges.
“From 1st January 2026, the Heads of State have agreed that all Member States should remove taxes on air transport.
“These taxes are against the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s guidelines and suppress demand rather than support growth,” he said.
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Appiah said the new policy was crucial to ECOWAS’ integration agenda, which relies heavily on connectivity and the free movement of people, goods, and services.
He said that ECOWAS stands for regional integration, and regional integration thrives on connectivity, adding that transport was one of the main modes of connecting member states.
“What these taxes do is suppress demand, and air transport is not growing to support tourism, health, education, and other sectors.
“If you want to buy goods from Lagos to Dakar, for instance, a trader will not pay less than $3,000 in tickets, and a lot of that is taxes.”
“We are working with the airlines themselves to make sure that when the taxes and charges are removed, they will also in turn reduce their tickets, so that the citizens of West Africa can travel freely,” he said.
Appiah said ECOWAS was already engaging airlines to ensure that they reduce fares once the tax and charge reforms become effective, noting that other African sub-regions were doing better in air travel because they charged less.
He said that ECOWAS was also working with member states, parliaments, and aviation stakeholders to ensure effective implementation by Jan. 2026.
“Our charges are sometimes 67 per cent more than any other region on the continent, that is why airlines like Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airlines and Royal Air Maroc are doing very well, while our region is suffering,” Appiah added.
The ECOWAS Heads of State and Government had, during their Summit held in December 2024 in Abuja, adopted the airfare ticket tax severance as a landmark measure aimed at lowering air travel across the sub-region
This was against the backdrop of years of stunted growth in the region’s air transport sector due to excessive taxes, charges, and fees, which together suppressed travel demand.
NAN/Shakirat Sadiq