President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Mrs. Susan Akporiaye has denied the plan by foreign airlines to sell tickets in dollars following the forex scarcity and inability of airlines to repatriate their earnings from the country.
The NANTA President was reacting to reports indicating that foreign carriers would start selling tickets in dollars from April 19, 2022 and insisted that such reports were false, noting that NANTA was confirming that the reports were not correct.
“There are reports that from April 19, airlines in Nigeria will start issuing tickets in dollars and I want to say that it is not correct. If you read the publication that reported the story, NANTA was not quoted because the information didn’t come from us and whoever put that write up together did not consult us if not, we would have properly educated the person on the facts rather than generalizing,” Akporiaye said.
She disclosed that APG Network for Airlines, which was the platform that was quoted to have given the information is only a distribution platform, which can assist airlines to generate additional revenue by selling air and non-air ancillaries.
“APG is not an airline and so cannot speak on behalf of airlines in Nigeria. I am the President of NANTA and I can say that airlines in Nigeria did not tell travel agencies that they will start issuing tickets in dollars because of the forex issue of repatriating their funds,” Akporiaye said.
She said information reaching NANTA showed that the letter from APG was sent without the consent of the top management of the company.
“As we speak, information from APG is saying that they will do a press release stating that the letter was sent without their consent and they will withdraw it. As we speak, the APG platform has been shut down, just to tell you that truly they were not aware,” she added.
According to her, airlines are squeezed because their funds are stuck in Nigeria but what the airlines have done to cushion the effect of their stuck funds is that travel agencies in Nigeria are stopped from issuing tickets not originating from Nigeria.
“This is not good for us because it is reducing our sales and the opportunity for us to service our clients properly,” the NANTA president explained.
She assured that the airlines know that the law of Nigeria does not support airlines selling tickets in non-Nigerian currencies.
She called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to intervene in helping release the stuck funds for airlines and making dollars available.
“Airlines have removed lower inventory from their system because they have to source for these funds in the primary market and it is very expensive. The rate we sell in the system is not the same rate airlines get the dollars in the primary market.
“So, for the airlines to break even, they stopped selling their lower inventories. The fares have not gone up but it is just that the airlines are not selling their lower inventories. The ones being sold are the higher inventories. We sell at N444 per dollar on the system but the airlines are sourcing for dollars at N590 per dollar,” Akporiaye explained.
