UNJUSTIFIABLE N2.3M FOR SIX-HOUR FLIGHTS BETWEEN NIGERIA AND LONDON — AON

If foreign airlines who fly into Nigeria don't lower the price of their tickets, they might be compelled to reduce their frequency in the following days.

This is taking place against a backdrop of consistently rising airfares and difficulties with the bilateral aviation service agreement, or BASA, with Nigeria. The foreign airlines raised their fares in reaction to the challenges they had in bringing the more than $464 million trapped abroad.

According to stakeholders, a reflection of the situation showed that Nigerians now purchase tickets for three to four million naira and are subject to fees of up to one million naira for changing their trip dates, even on tickets purchased before the problem started.

Additionally, several foreign nations have barred Nigerian airlines from doing business with them despite the fact that they complied with IATA regulations and had BASA in place.

In response to the development, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, urged the home governments of foreign airlines flying into Nigeria to reciprocate by providing equal landing opportunities to Nigerian airlines to such countries, as a way to lessen the pressure on foreign exchange, or FX.

Nigerian airlines wouldn't require foreign exchange for tickets under such circumstances, he continued, as their main requirement for foreign exchange would be for the importation of aircraft, components, or services.

The BASA never required CBN to supply FX for the repatriation of international airlines' earnings; instead, they were allowed to do so through the Exporters and Importers' Window.

However, CBN would still give precedence to airlines and would work to clear the backlog; instead, they should request that their banks receive foreign exchange on their behalf from the Investors and Exporters, I & E window.

Why is a 6-hour journey to London worth N2.3 million to passengers？

The Chairman of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, asked the foreign airlines to cut their frequencies on their own during a meeting with aviation stakeholders, including local operators and international airlines, that was organized by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

Why do you use so many frequencies when, in the end, you just make the problems in the nation worse？ Why would somebody spend N2.3 million to travel to London for six hours？ That cannot be justified.

There have been a lot of issues brought up, and I want people to know that Nigerian Airlines are not opposed to foreign airlines bringing their money home, but we find it so sad that some Nigerians and foreign airlines are using certain narratives to try to discredit the government and the nation, and that is not acceptable.

He who seeks equity must do so with pure intentions. It is deplorable that some agents were financed by sponsors to appear on television and criticize the government, claiming that it failed because cash were trapped.

Trying to stop Nigerian airlines from acting as they are acting doesn't seem to be a new problem. Let's think back to the evacuation flights during COVID. I don't agree that the vast gap in airplane ticket prices is the result of stranded monies.

Fuel wasn't this expensive during the COVID evacuation. In order to aid Nigerians, Air Peace had trouble obtaining a landing permit at Heathrow airport. For a 364-seater aircraft, which is our triple seven, all of our tickets were gone in less than two hours.

Why was it the case？ It's because Air Peace recognized the plight of Nigerians and set its fare at less than N400,000, whereas a competing airline operating out of that country was charging Nigerians roughly 2,000 pounds. We cost Nigerians less than $600 for transportation. When we arrived, they made an effort to discourage us. In the end, they prevented Air Peace from performing a walk-around on its aircraft, which is against safety protocol, after sending dogs behind our aircraft to sniff at our pilots.

The law of aviation states that after taking off and leaving the ground for only two minutes, an aircraft must walk around before it can take off again out of consideration for potential in-flight collisions.

We had a six-hour flight to get to London, but we were not permitted to see inside our plane to see whether it had been hacked. Fortunately, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) received a petition on that from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

They do these things to us, but Nigerians would not go on television to voice their complaints or inquire about them. Instead, we were quick to criticize the Nigerian government, claiming that it failed because foreign airlines were unable to pay their bills. Nigerians need to start de-stigmatizing themselves because what is taking place is very regrettable. The second flight that we had received consent for was canceled because they saw that we were going to lower these costs, even though anything could have occurred to our aircraft on its route back to Nigeria. I hired a European airline and paid for the free return of 584 Nigerians since I didn't want Nigerians to suffer.