Trapped Funds: Foreign Airlines Shut Down Booking Portals Against Nigerian Travel Agencies

Trapped Funds: Foreign Airlines Shut Down Booking Portals Against Nigerian Travel Agencies

  • Foreign airlines are increasingly isolating air travelers from Nigeria due to the $465 trapped funds belonging to them
  • The latest development is the airlines shutting down their Global Distribution Systems or booking portals against travel agencies from Nigeria
  • Reports say most of the airlines which have taken the steps are from Europe, Asia, and America

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Nigerians wishing to travel overseas would struggle to purchase their flight tickets from the black markets as foreign airlines have begun to isolate travel agencies from Nigeria from accessing their booking portals.

The foreign airlines cited the issue of the $465 million owed to the airlines by the Nigerian government.

Travel agencies, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines
Nigerian travel agencies stopped from booking flights Credit: JACK GUEZ / Contributor
Source: Getty Images

Travel agencies struggle to survive

The development started six months ago and has seen travel agencies either go out of business or reduce their staffing.

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According to reports, Airlines from Europe, America, the Middle East, and Asia, including Ethiopian Airlines, have stopped many travel agencies from Nigeria from accessing their Global Distribution Systems (GDS).

The GDS shutdown hinders travel agents regarded as travel partners to the airlines from booking flights for their clients through the platform.

Travel agents make a commission for each booking from air travellers through the GDS of the airlines.

The airlines isolating Nigerian travel agencies

Other airlines isolating Nigerian travel agencies include Delta Airlines, Air France, Emirates, British Airways, Atlantic, Lufthansa, Turkish, and Qatar Airways. They cited the $465 million trapped funds as the reason for the move.

Air travellers from Nigeria need to get their flight tickets from alternative sources, namely the black markets and intermediaries, at exorbitant costs.

The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) have is yet to comment on the issue. Still, experts have asked the body to pressure the Nigerian government to release the trapped funds.

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Nigeria is world’s most indebted country to foreign airlines as funds kept in CBN hit $600 million

Legit.ng reported that Nigeria may lose the patronage of foreign airlines as it becomes the worst indebted country to foreign airlines globally.

The raging controversy over funds trapped in the country may snowball into a stalemate as $600 million trapped in the vaults of the Central Bank of Nigeria has become the highest owed by any country in the world.

According to the Tribune, as of March 2022, the trapped fund was $285 million.

Source: Legit.ng

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