Findings has revealed that International airfares has increased by 20% after foreign airlines raised the exchange rate for ticket sale from N462 per dollar to N551 per dollar.
According to The PUNCH, foreign passengers flying on Nigerian routes have been paying higher costs after airlines restricted their inventory of lower-cost tickets in order to mitigate the consequences of the rising quantity of stranded monies.
The International Air Transport Association, the Switzerland-based trade organisation of the world’s airlines, has increased the naira-dollar exchange rate for ticket sales, which is expected to compound the condition of Nigerian travelers who are already paying higher airfares.
On Friday, several travel companies verified that worldwide distribution system companies had informed them of the latest hike.
They claimed that the move was perhaps related to the challenges foreign airlines had while remitting their ticket sales revenue from Nigeria.
Travel agents claim that the increase in exchange rates has caused international airfares to rise by more than 20%.
“Virgin Atlantic which has a promo of about N800,000. This same promo is going for about N1.1m as a result of the increase in the exchange rate,” the chief executive officer of a travel agency, who chose to speak on condition of anonymity, said.
The Managing Director of the research firm Financial Derivatives Company Ltd, Bismarck Rewane, stated that the latest increase in the exchange rate could not be attributed to foreign airlines.
He said, “In dollar terms, airfares have not gone up, It is still the same amount. The increase will only affect those who buy their tickets in naira. But we can’t blame foreign airlines. We need to put ourselves in their shoes. Why can’t they repatriate their funds? They are losing money by not being able to repatriate their funds. Most of their expenses are denominated in dollars, how will they pay for all these services and goods when they can’t repatriate their funds?”
