Following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) announcement that it has cleared all of these foreign airlines’ “verified” foreign exchange backlogs, travel agencies operating under the auspices of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) have called on airline operators in Nigeria to lower the prices of flight tickets.
In a press release provided to THE MATRIX on Wednesday, NANTA stated its stance and cautioned these airlines—especially the international airlines—to promptly modify the cost of their aircraft tickets or else they would be subject to severe penalties.
The pressure group hailed CBN’s strategic involvement, highlighting its collaboration with the International Air Traffic Agencies (IATA) to free up cash stuck in the air, totaling more than $700 million—the largest amount among the 130 IATA member nations.
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According to IATA and a number of international airlines, Nigeria, which has some of the most costly outbound flight ticket rates, made its choice mostly due to the stranded cash.
Due to the trapped funds situation, NANTA had accepted the exorbitant flight ticket prices in the past as a justifiable reason but insisted that it should be immediately reversed now that the CBN had fulfilled its pledge.
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It stated that “NANTA, therefore, holds a firm position that, with ROE at NGN 1421 and backlogs cleared by CBN, airlines have no further reason and justification to restrict inventory in the Nigerian market. We at NANTA view further restrictions of lower inventory as excessive, profiteering, and unsupportive of the Nigerian Government/Market in the face of our economic challenges.
“NANTA has made a request to IATA, to prevail on all airlines operating in the Nigerian market to release all lower inventories latest by Friday 2nd February 2024. Reminding IATA that NANTA was cooperative and collaborative when the request was made by IATA.
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“Anything short of full release of inventory by all airlines is now unexplainable, leading NANTA to view that there is more to the actions of airlines in our market.
“The National President made NANTA’s position clear to IATA that if full inventories are not released by all airlines by Friday, 2nd February 2024, NANTA would address a World Press Conference next week, on the unexplainable, unreasonable, unjustifiable, and unsupportive actions of airlines in Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, IATA has welcomed CBN’s announcement of its release of an additional $64.44 million in blocked airline funds, but admitted that “it was consulting with our airline members to verify the release of their revenues, noting that about $700 million remains trapped in the country.”
