The pricing of the newly introduced airport car-hire service has sparked outrage among travellers and Nigerians online after a travel content creator revealed that a trip from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, to Ikeja could cost as much as N30,000. The development came to light after travel content creator Chris Joondeph, known as 'Authentic Travelling', shared a video on TikTok of his experience at the Lagos airport, where he sought the cost of a ride to the Radisson Blu Hotel in Ikeja.
Joondeph, who said he previously paid between N6,000 and N8,000 for the journey on Uber, was surprised when an airport car-hire operator quoted N30,000 for the trip. "Radisson, that's in GRA Ikeja. It's just 30,000," the operator told him. Reacting, Joondeph said, "It costs 30,000 to Ikeja, when it normally used to cost me at most 8,000 naira. Me, I sabi. I won't be paying that."
Rather than use the airport service, he walked outside the airport and ordered an inDrive for N6,100. A check by PUNCH Online showed a significant difference between airport car-hire prices and conventional e-hailing fares: the airport car-hire platform ACHRAMS lists trips from the airport to the city centre at N10,000-N20,000, suburbs N20,000-N30,000, and inter-state N30,000-N60,000, while for the same airport-to-Radisson Ikeja trip Bolt listed N6,900, Uber listed N4,200 (UberX) and N5,800 (Priority) - making the ACHRAMS fare about 335% higher than Bolt's, 614% higher than UberX and 417% higher than Uber Priority.
The disparity triggered reactions online: @Captainbee called it "exploitation"; Aziegen (Igba Aje) asked how a 4-9km, sub-20-minute ride could cost N30,000; @abidemi_rufai called it "a rip off", accusing FAAN of banning Uber inside the airport while collaborating with an operator charging N30k; on TikTok, Yinkaku said "that pricing is not even realistic" and Sarova asked "The airport is literally in Ikeja.
How can it cost 30,000??" The disparity followed restrictions on direct pick-ups by conventional e-hailing operators, but FAAN said it did not impose a blanket ban on Uber, Bolt or other e-hailing services, explaining it was engaging the platforms on how to operate within the airports' security and regulatory framework, and that ACHRAMS was introduced to regulate airport car-hire operations, "not intended to compete with or replicate the services provided by Uber, Bolt or any other e-hailing platform."
Source: https://punchng.com/n30000-lagos-airport-ikeja-fare-sparks-outrage/. Separately on X, @Dee_9889 noted: "Lagos Airport bans Uber & ride-shares. Pickups now restricted to a new government app that's far more expensive (Ikeja rides jumped from N6k to N30k). Hack: Walk ~5 mins away from the airport and grab a normal ride-share at the usual price. Reports say it's temporary..."
