Nigeria’s newly introduced foreign exchange rate policy has made airfares on international routes to go up.
Due to the adoption of N283 Naira to 1 dollar (formerly at N200/1Dollar) as the new interbank exchange rate for the conversion of flight tickets, normally which are globally priced in dollars, by the Swiss-based International Air Transport Association, IATA. This has led a dramatic increase in international airfares on Nigerian routes.
IATA, which account for 83 per cent of the total global air traffic, is a trade association for the world’s airlines consisting of about 260 airlines represented in 117 countries.
Enquiries from popular international airlines and travel agencies operating in Nigeria showed that the airfares might be increased further as the summer peak season travels commences this week.
An economy class ticket (return) to Johannesburg from Lagos, which used to go for between N110,000 and N130,000, now cost between N170,000 and N230,000, representing a 66 per cent increase.
Part of the reason for the increase in airfares is the decision by top officials of foreign airlines operating in Nigeria to recoup the losses caused by the months of delay in repatriating their sales proceeds.
It should be noted that over 25 foreign airlines operating in the country had about $600m stuck in Nigeria as of March 2016. This was before the Central Bank of Nigeria floated the naira and made dollars available for them to repatriate ticket sales proceeds two weeks ago.
International Air Transport Association, according to air travel experts, usually follow the CBN’s interbank official rate for member airlines to price their tickets.
