Flights Lagos -> Cotonou (LOS-COO) — USD Fares, Airlines, Frequency
5 scheduled departures a week link Lagos (LOS) in Nigeria with Cotonou (COO) — one every 1.4 days on average — flown by 2 catalogued carriers at a scheduled block time near 0.8 hours.
Flight LOS -> COO is operated by Arik Air, Ethiopian Airlines (~5 flights per week, ~0.8h block time). This is an intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. As a rough planning range (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare), economy runs about $500-1,500; the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Intra-Africa and Gulf-hub transit fares move week-to-week; 4-8 weeks is the typical sweet spot.
Great-circle distance Lagos–Cotonou is about 106 km, computed from the stored coordinates of LOS (6.58, 3.32) and COO (6.36, 2.38). What the figure fixes is the sector profile — 106 km against a scheduled 0.8-hour block time — and the fuel-and-crew economics behind the fare floor. It does not fix a compensation amount. No fixed-tariff compensation scheme reaches LOS–COO. EU261 and UK261 do band by distance, but they only cover flights departing an EU/EEA or UK airport — plus arrivals there on a bloc-licensed carrier — and neither endpoint here is one, whoever operates the flight. The Montreal Convention 1999 is what applies, and it pays provable loss, not a tariff.
Airlines on this route
2 carriers operate LOS–COO: Arik Air (W3) and Ethiopian Airlines (ET). Our carrier table records checked-baggage baselines of 23 kg; Ethiopian Airlines sits in Star Alliance while our table puts Arik Air outside a global alliance. That mix decides three things — the fare floor, whether your bag is through-checked on a connection, and which delay regulation covers you.
| Carrier | Baggage baseline | Alliance |
|---|---|---|
| Arik Air (W3) | 23 kg | none |
| Ethiopian Airlines (ET) | 23 kg | Star Alliance |
Our carrier table records a diaspora / migrant-worker baggage uplift of +5 kg on Ethiopian Airlines. Read that as a carrier promotion, not a universal entitlement: uplifts of this kind are normally tied to specific fare families and specific corridors, they are rarely honoured on a codeshare or interline segment issued by another airline, and the cheapest promotional fare buckets are the ones most often excluded. Confirm the allowance against your own booking class before you pack to it.
USD fares — LOS-COO
$500-1,500 USD is the economy planning band this catalogue applies to LOS–COO; neither our fare cache nor the weekly log holds a quote for the corridor, so there is no observed floor to publish. An absent entry means unqueried, not unflown.
As a rough planning range (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare), economy on LOS-COO runs about $500-1,500; the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Cached fares from a weekly Travelpayouts snapshot appear in the panel below, with their observation date; fare-month seasonality follows.
Book 4-8 weeks ahead. Fares rise around the December holidays; mid-week departures are usually the cheapest. That window is general guidance rather than a rule for this single pairing; on a corridor with 5 weekly departures, the practical constraint is often seat availability on the days you can actually travel, not the headline fare.
One thing our fare data cannot tell you: whether the quote includes a checked bag. The cache stores a price and a carrier, not a fare family. On LOS–COO that matters most where a low-cost carrier or a basic-economy bucket is in the mix, because the cheapest screen number and the cheapest all-in number are then two different itineraries. Compare after adding the bag you will actually carry.
Checked baggage and uplift on LOS–COO — and what is not covered
23 kg is the checked-baggage baseline our carrier table records for the 2 airlines on LOS–COO, with a recorded diaspora uplift of up to +5 kg on Ethiopian Airlines. Baselines are economy figures and fare-family dependent. The allowance printed on your issued ticket overrides any table, this one included.
Read the baseline as an advertised standard rather than a guarantee. Airlines on LOS–COO sell below it through hand-baggage and basic-economy fare families, and those are disproportionately the fares that appear as the corridor’s cheapest quote. The only allowance that binds anyone is the one printed on the ticket you hold.
Where our table records a migrant or diaspora uplift — +5 kg on Ethiopian Airlines — three exclusions usually bite. The uplift attaches to nominated corridors rather than the whole network; it rarely survives onto a codeshare or interline segment operated and ticketed by a different airline; and the deepest-discount fare buckets are commonly carved out. None of that makes the uplift fictional, but it does mean it has to be confirmed against your booking class, in writing, before you pack to it.
Connections on LOS–COO: what “direct” actually buys you
0.8 hours is the scheduled nonstop block time on LOS–COO; any itinerary a search returns well above that is connecting, whatever the screen calls it. “Direct” is a flight-number description, not a promise of a single takeoff and landing. Two separately issued sectors are not one contract.
The distinction is not pedantry. A direct flight keeps one flight number through an intermediate stop, so it can sit in the nonstop filter of a search engine while adding an hour on the ground and a second departure to miss. A connecting itinerary changes flight number and usually aircraft. On LOS–COO the practical test is the elapsed-time figure: compare it against the 0.8-hour block time before you compare prices.
The second trap is the ticket, not the routing. Two cheap sectors bought separately to reach Cotonou are not one contract: your bag is not through-checked, you re-clear security and often immigration at the transfer point, and if the first leg lands late the second airline owes you nothing — no rebooking, no refund, no duty of care. A single ticket that costs more can be the cheaper outcome the first time anything slips.
Search live fares
5 weekly departures across 2 carriers mean a live LOS–COO search returns several price points for the same day; we hold no observed floor for this corridor, so the live result is the only number. Scheduled nonstop block time is 0.8 hours, so any result far above that is connecting whatever the screen says.
Search LOS -> COO on Aviasales ->
Three checks make a live LOS–COO result comparable. Fix the passenger count and cabin first, because a per-passenger fare and a party total look identical on a results page. Then read the elapsed time next to the price — a one-stop itinerary and the 0.8-hour nonstop are different products at the same number. Then check whether the fare carries the bag you are actually taking.
If anything about your LOS–COO trip can move, make it the dates. The gap between the cheapest and dearest departure month in our own fare log is routinely larger than any difference between one booking site and another. Fixed dates put you in competition with everyone else holding the same date, and the answer there is to book early rather than to keep looking.
About Cotonou
3 catalogued corridors in this site’s data reach Cotonou (COO), Cardinal Bernardin Gantin International, ICAO DBBB, from 3 catalogued origins and 3 carriers in total. That count is this site’s coverage of Cotonou, not the airport’s published schedule. Each of those corridors has its own guide with carriers, weekly frequency, scheduled block time and whatever the fare cache holds.
Cotonou, Benin — destination on the intra-Africa + Gulf hub transit corridor. Destination currency: USD (we quote in USD throughout this guide).
Beyond LOS, our catalogue reaches Cotonou from 2 other origins: Accra (ACC) and Casablanca (CMN). That matters when the LOS–COO fare is unattractive: on a continent where positioning flights are cheap, flying out of a different gateway is a real option, and each of those corridors has its own guide, carriers and cached fare floor on this site.
FAQ
Which airlines fly Lagos to Cotonou? Direct LOS-COO flights are operated by Arik Air, Ethiopian Airlines. Compare baggage baseline and alliance in the carrier table above.
How long is the LOS-COO flight and how often does it run? Block time is about 0.8 hours. The LOS-COO route runs roughly 5 flights per week across all carriers.
How much does a LOS-COO flight cost and when is it cheapest? Our rough planning range is $500-1,500 USD (an editorial estimate, not an observed fare); the fare observation on this page shows what our weekly snapshot recorded and when. Intra-Africa and Gulf-hub transit fares move week-to-week; 4-8 weeks is the typical sweet spot.
What is the checked baggage allowance on LOS-COO? It varies by carrier and fare class — see the baggage-baseline column in the carrier table above. Full-service carriers usually include 23-30 kg, while low-cost carriers sell it as an add-on. Confirm on the airline’s site before booking.
What currency is used in Cotonou? Cotonou uses USD. Fares in this guide are quoted in USD; budget on-the-ground spending in USD.
Related routes and reading
- Lagos airport (LOS) — Murtala Muhammed International, Nigeria: 19 catalogued departure corridors and 2 arrival corridors.
- Cotonou airport (COO) — Cardinal Bernardin Gantin International, Benin: 0 catalogued departure corridors and 3 arrival corridors.
The corridor links are there to be used as alternatives, not as further reading. If the LOS–COO fare or schedule does not work, a different African gateway to Cotonou is often the better fix — positioning within the continent is cheap relative to the long-haul sector, and the fare gap between two origins to the same destination is regularly wider than the positioning ticket. The catch is that separately issued sectors carry no protection if the first one runs late.