‘It’s unacceptable’ — Travel agencies ask FG to engage stakeholders on soaring air fares

The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) says the continued increase in the price of local and international air fares is unacceptable. 

Susan Akporiaye, NANTA’s national president, said this on Thursday during a media briefing in Lagos. 

Akporiaye described the increment as hostile to the survival of the Nigerian aviation downstream sector, and urged the federal government to engage necessary stakeholders in the aviation industry on the matter. 

She said it was disheartening that Nigerians had to buy tickets worth N3 million and be charged as high as N1 million to change travel dates — even on tickets bought before the problem began.

“This is unacceptable, exploitative, and hostile to the survival of Nigerian aviation downstream sector,” she said. 

“We call for sanity and return to the best inventory practices and deployment.

“We urge government, as a matter of urgency, to open further windows of engagement by calling for a meeting with all parties involved.” 

Akporiaye said such parties include the “Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the minister of aviation, minister of finance, minister of foreign affairs, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and NANTA”.

“We appreciate government for the release of some funds for the aviation industry and we hope this problem will be attended to promptly,” she said.

Akporiaye added that the country was going through one of the most difficult times in its travel economy.

She said there were issues of foreign exchange scarcity, astronomical local and international travel fare increases, visa restrictions and threats of deportation by foreign countries without hesitation.

Akporiaye said businesses must be considered as they were on the verge of total collapse, adding that staff in the industry might be forced into the streets.

“We request that the foreign airlines pause and have a rethink on this that we find exploitative,” she said. 

“They are advised to restore inventories across board and think of the good days when they flew in and out of Nigeria, enjoying the best patronage from us and Nigerian travelling public.”

The NANTA president said the delay in the repatriation of funds of foreign airlines was an embarrassing situation, especially when IATA labeled Nigeria as a debt-bearing country. 

According to her, NANTA embarked on empathy visits to all the foreign airlines to share in their pains.

She said the association rubbed minds with the airlines on engaging the government through the ministry of aviation and the CBN to readily find solutions on the release of the trapped funds.

She added that in the course of the suffocating circumstance, the airlines withdrew lower inventories across the board, selling at the highest possible openings as a way to cushion their trapped funds.

“Amidst the challenging exorbitant option for our clients and other travelling public, not excluding the threat to job losses and closure of shops by most of our members, we held on to optimism that our government will respond,” she said. 

“Just recently, the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria released about $265 million to service these trapped funds and to which IATA hailed Nigeria for taking strategic measures to end the problem.

“Sadly, that gesture resulted to foreign airlines visiting the Nigerian travelling public with most exploitative response in the name of protecting their business.

“Their response, which we could describe as ‘high fare pandemic’, is solely targeted at Nigeria and Nigerians, and cannot be seen anywhere in Africa, even in countries where they also have their funds being trapped.

“This problem must be resolved promptly.”