The President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Mrs. Susan Akporiaye, has attributed the opening of lower fare inventories by foreign airlines, the rising strength of the naira and the clearing of the backlog of international carriers’ trapped funds as the reasons for the reduction in air fares.
Fares on international routes from Nigeria for economy class tickets were as high as N3 million a few weeks ago as the airlines closed all lower inventories and only sold the high fares to travellers. Akporiaye, who spoke at a NANTA press conference yesterday in Lagos, said: “At the same time, the problem of high fares lasted, the countries lost the travel market to neighbouring countries like Ghana and Togo because those countries provided cheaper fares.”
She equally stated that during that period, most tickets were sold outside Nigeria in what is generally referred to in travel parlance as ‘Sold Outside Ticketed Outside (SOTO)’; a situation that brought revenue to the travel operators but a loss to the country as it lost taxes that would have accrued to the nation. She put the reduction in ticket revenue in 2023 last quarter at 40% compared to the same period in 2022. “Majority of the tickets we sold were out of Nigeria. Those sales were not attributed to the Nigerian market. If we access the Ghana market or any West African country market, they would have seen an unusual growth, while it is a downward trend for the Nigerian market.
This is because the airlines closed the lower inventories while the same lower inventories were open in other markets. “It was difficult for us to be able to get foreign exchange. The restrictions put by the airlines because of foreign exchange availability led to a drop in sales from Nigeria. Our members had to put up a survival mechanism. “So, what we did as travel agencies was to move our sales to other markets. Interestingly, the travel is still from Nigeria. Passengers still travel from Lagos to London but the tickets were bought in Ghana. So, the revenue will be attributed to Ghana and not to us,” Akporiaye added.
On the forthcoming AGM, Akporiaye stated that Mr. Humphery Geiseb, the High Commissioner, Namibia to Nigeria, would be the keynote speaker and special guest. Also, Festus Keyamo and Lola Ace-John, the Ministers of Aviation and Aerospace Development and Tourism, respectively are some of the special guests of the day and will deliver goodwill messages at the AGM.
