N2.3m for six hours Nigeria-London flights — AON

On Saturday Vanguard gathered that, the foreign airlines in response to their difficulties in the repatriation of over $464 million trapped in the country, increased their airfares.

A reflection of the development according to stakeholders, showed that Nigerians now buy tickets to the tune of three to four million naira and be charged as high as one million naira to change travel dates even on tickets bought before this issues began.

Also, some foreign countries have denied Nigeria airlines despite meeting the International Air Transport Association, IATA statutory requirements access for business even with BASA already in place

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, governor, Godwin Emefiele, in reaction to the development, urged home governments of foreign airlines flying into Nigeria to reciprocate by granting equal landing opportunities to Nigerian airlines to such countries, as means of reducing the pressure for Foreign Exchange, FX.

He said: “Nigerian airlines would not need FX for tickets in such cases, as their only demand for FX would be for the importation of planes and parts or services.

“The BASA never made it compulsory for CBN to provide FX for repatriation of foreign airlines income and that they should freely obtain such FX from the Exporters and importers’ Window.

“Notwithstanding, CBN would continue to treat airlines as priority and would clear the backlog but that they should ask their banks to obtain FX for them from the Investors and Exporters, I & E window.”

Why should travellers pay N2.3m for 6-hour flight to London?

Meanwhile, in a meeting organised by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, with aviation stakeholders, including domestic operators and international airlines, the Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, asked the foreign airlines to reduce their frequencies on their own.

He said: “Why are you running many frequencies and at the end of the day, you compound the woes of the country? Why would anyone pay N2.3 million for a six-hour flight to London? That is indefensible.

“There are so many issues raised and I want people to understand that the Nigerian airlines are not against foreign airlines repatriating their money but we feel so sad that some Nigerians and international airlines are using certain narratives in an attempt to rubbish the government and the country and that is unacceptable.

“He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. A situation whereby people sponsored some agents to go on television to badmouth the government that it has failed because funds were trapped is unacceptable.

“This issue of trying to prevent Nigerian airlines from doing what they are doing didn’t start now. Let us take our minds back to the evacuation flights during covid and when they say it is because of trapped funds that the disparity in the cost of flight tickets is so huge, I disagree.

“During the covid evacuation, the cost of fuel was not this high. Air Peace struggled to get a landing permit into Heathrow airport to help Nigerians. Our tickets were sold out within two hours for a 364-seater aircraft which is our triple seven.

“Why was it like that? It is because Air Peace understood the plight of Nigerians and fixed its fare at less than N400, 000, while another airline coming from there was taking about two thousand pounds from Nigerians. We charged Nigerians less than six hundred dollars to and fro. We went there and they tried to discourage us. They sent dogs after our aircraft to sniff at our pilots and at the end of the day, they stopped Air Peace from doing its walk-around on its aircraft, something that violates safety. The rule of aviation is that when you take off and your aircraft leaves the ground for just two minutes if that plane wants to land, before that plane can take off again, it must do a walk around because anything could have hit the plane in transit.

“We flew six hours into London but we were not allowed to go round our aircraft to know if it has been compromised. Thankfully, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) petitioned the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) over that. They do these things to us but Nigerians would not go on television to complain and ask questions about that but we were very quick to run the government of Nigeria down, saying that they failed because foreign airlines couldn’t get their money. Nigerians must begin to de-stigmatise themselves because what is happening is very unfortunate. Anything could have happened to our aircraft on its way back to Nigeria and because they saw that we were going to bring these fares down, the second flight which we had gotten approval for was cancelled. I didn’t want Nigerians to suffer, so, I hired a European airline and paid for 584 Nigerians to be brought back free of charge.

“We must begin to love our country. We are not against them collecting their money but how do you explain that someone flying nine hours from South Africa to London, is paying less than a Nigerian flying six hours. How do you explain how someone flying from London to Las Vegas is paying far less than what a Nigerian is paying for six hours. We belong to IATA and I would implore them to use the same force to tell these people that we are also qualified. If Air Peace could do a 14- hour non-stop flight to China, six hours to London is it a piece of cake? But we are always hitting brick walls. So, I expect the IATA and those Nigerians clapping for the foreign airlines to know that we are doing ourselves a disservice. Our forex is depleted. Nigeria didn’t seize funds because the CBN has told them to go through the I & E forex window just like domestic airlines are doing.

“You cannot give what you don’t have. If the government had the money, the foreign airlines would have been paid. What we should be thinking about is solutions to these issues so that they would stop blackmailing Nigeria. How do we solve this problem? You knew quite well that your funds would be trapped in Nigeria and you are increasing your frequency every day to the detriment of the local airlines. What we are saying is that Nigerian airlines should be allowed to access these foreign countries.

“I know that after speaking here, I will face problems but I do not care. Let us not allow this stigmatisation to continue. Air Peace was flying into the gulf and one of the gulf carriers applied to have a third frequency out of Lagos in 2019 and they were getting it until we kicked. It is not as if they would get enough passengers to fill the third frequency. The idea was just to snuff the life out of the indigenous carriers so that when you shut down your operations, they would make Nigerians pay for their flights through their noses and it is very hurtful that Nigerians don’t see some of these things. We support the foreign airlines getting their money because this is business. However, Nigeria would not cut its head to pay them.”