Group Asks FG To Stop Foreign Travel Agencies From Selling Cheaper Flight Tickets To Nigerians

• Nigerian air travellers have been burdened with paying more for flight tickets, as checks show that prices grew more than 40% in one year
• Amid these price hikes, they turn to foreign travel agencies for cheaper flight tickets, leaving the local agents, whose rates are higher
• Nigerian travel agents have now called on the federal government to intervene and address the existing price disparities in cross-border ticket sales

Legit.ng journalist Ruth Okwumbu-Imafidon has over a decade of experience in business reporting across digital and mainstream media.

Air travellers always look out for travel agencies to get the best rates when purchasing their plane tickets for inbound and outbound flights from Nigeria.

Price disparities occur due to several reasons, but the foreign travel agencies often offer cheaper ticket prices for flights originating from and to Nigeria, and attract a lot of patronage.

The President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), Yinka Folami, has raised alarm about the disparity in ticket prices and how it affects travel agencies in Nigeria.

NANTA raises issues in cross-border ticket sales

Folami called on the federal government to address the issue of foreign travel agencies offering lower prices for tickets on flights originating from Nigeria, the PUNCH reports.

The NANTA president pointed out that the practice of foreign travel agencies undercutting their Nigerian counterparts was harmful to the market.

He stated:

“We have a situation where a Lagos-London ticket is cheaper to buy in Asia. It is not fair to the Nigerian market and we are already talking to the government about it.”

He explained that while foreign flights could be cheaper with the foreign travel agencies, it was ridiculous to have the same thing happen for flight routes originating from Nigeria.

His words:

“It is hurting the market. It is like we are allowing those foreign travel agencies the opportunity to undercut our market.”

Nigerian agents pay dollars for tickets

Note that the travel agents earlier had complained about the challenges associated with remitting ticket sales to the airlines in dollars.

The agencies explained that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) daily transaction limit of $10,000 constrained them from remitting all the sales, placing them at risk of being blacklisted.

They asked the government to either review the daily limit or prevail on the airlines to accept ticket sales in naira.

Flight tickets increase by 48% in one year

The price of flight tickets has increased astronomically in the last year, causing Nigerians to spend more to avoid road travel.

A new report from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in just one year, the cost of airfare for domestic flights increased by 47.69%.

Air transportation costs were highest in the South-West region, followed by the North-Central, while the South-South recorded the lowest fares.

NCAA addresses high cost of flight tickets

In related news, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has clarified that it does not control airline ticket prices and has no hand in the high cost.

According to the NCAA, deciding the price of flight tickets is done by airlines worldwide, and Nigeria follows the same principles.

The NCAA director of Consumer Protection and Public Affairs, Michael Achimugu, explained that airlines must submit their airfare list to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) annually, following established guidelines.

Source: Legit.ng