ECOWAS to halt air ticket taxes from January to cut airfares

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) says it will prohibit air ticket taxes to reduce airfares in all airports across the subregion from January 2026.

Chris Appiah, the ECOWAS director of transport and communications, spoke in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the ECOWAS council of ministers’ meeting on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to NAN, Appiah said the move was part of a sweeping regional policy that was approved by the ECOWAS authority of heads of state and government in December 2024.

He said the decision aims to make air travel more affordable and deepen subregional economic integration, noting that high airfares are largely driven by government taxes and aviation charges.

The ECOWAS director said the decision followed nearly a decade of studies confirming 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,” Appiah said

“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 the new policy is crucial to ECOWAS’ integration agenda, anchored on connectivity and the free movement of people, goods, and services.

Appiah said the bloc stands for regional integration, which he said, thrives on connectivity.

He added 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,” he said.

“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.”

Appiah noted that other African sub-regions were doing better in air travel because they charge less, disclosing that charges in the region are sometimes up to 67 percent higher than in other parts of the continent.

This, according to the ECOWAS director, is why airlines like Ethiopian Airlines, South African Airlines, and Royal Air Maroc are doing very well, “while our region is suffering”.

He said the bloc is also working with member states, parliaments and aviation stakeholders to ensure effective implementation by January 2026.