Travelstart, major online travel agency in Nigeria is partnering with Uber, which connects independent drivers with riders, to bring down the cost of flight ticket and the drive to the airport in order to encourage people to travel.
Country Manager, Travelstart, Bukky Akomolafe, explained that the partnership is aimed at bringing down the cost of flight ticket and movement to the airport to encourage people to travel, especially during the holidays.
She acknowledged the difficulty being faced by potential travellers due to high cost of ticket, the high exchange rate and said that Travelstart has made booking easy and cheaper and when you book your flights through the agency it automatically offers you a ride on Uber to the airport at very affordable rate,
“What motivated this partnership was really a core understanding of what everyone in the country is going through. We have been talking about flight prices, we have been talking about the foreign exchange and how it’s going up and how that directly has an impact on flight prices. So, what we at Travelstart wanted to do was to ease the burden. And we thought one of the ways that we can ease the burden is about trying to make the flights as cheap as possible given the landscape that we are in today.
“We did not just think about the flights but also how people are going to be able to get to the airport. Airport is one of the top destinations for Uber within the country; so, we took a very seamless decision to again work together with Uber to take travellers to the airport. And this isn’t our first time working with Uber. We worked together with Uber in 2018 and 2019. COVID-19 kind of stopped the continued collaboration that we have. So, we are really excited to come back now, especially in this season where we know that flight prices have gone up again. And not just think about international flights, but also think about local flights. Uber has presence not just in Lagos, but in Abuja, in Benin, in other states. For us, we carry passengers from all 36 states. So, to give them this opportunity to get a discount on their ride to the airport, we think at least will help. My mother always says, little drops of water make a mighty ocean. So, you know saving here, saving there, saving here will add up and really help everybody this season and that is really why we are doing this,” she said.
Also speaking, the Uber Country Manager, Mr. Tope Akinwumi said that the partnership means so much for the drivers and the riders because this is an opportunity to bring down the cost of travel to the airport by taking advantage of this partnership. Travellers who book their flights with Travelstart will benefit from the partnership.
“We are going into the holiday season. What we know is that people want to spend time with their families, they want to go on trips for vacation and we want to make that as cost-effective as possible for these people. We have the different stakeholders in Uber today, we have both the drivers and we have the riders. The first step to doing that is that the trip from your house to the airport, you want to make it cheaper. That is why we are offering that discount in partnership with Travelstart.
“So, as long as you are booking a flight ticket on Travelstart you get a percentage of your trip to the airport and from the airport to wherever you are going to. But then for people that use Uber more frequently, we have a competition going on from today to mid-December. So, the top three riders on the Uber get a free return ticket for domestic travel, whether you are going to Abuja or Lagos, that is paid fully by Travelstart. Then for the top two riders on Uber, you get a return ticket to London. Everybody wants to go to the UK today, so we will make it cheaper for you. So that is what it means for us. We want to ensure that this holiday season the top riders have it better on Uber,” he said.
