Foreign airlines operating
in Nigeria have relocated their ticketing offices to Ghana as a result of inability of the federal government to release enough foreign exchange through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to these foreign airlines.
In a telephone chat with the aviation correspondent of The Tide yesterday morning, the President of National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), Eastern Zone, Mr Steve Isokariari confirmed this recent development in the aviation industry in the country.
Isokariari who also doubles as board member of NANTA at the national level absolved the foreign airlines of any likely blame for their relocation, stating that it was for this and other issues affecting the aviation industry in Africa in general the reason he is in a meeting in South Africa with other Africans, Ghanians inclusive, to resolve this matter.
The airlines in the forefront that have moved their ticketing base out of Nigeria are United and Delta Airlines and British Airways inclusive of Virgin Atlantic.
What this means, according to an anonymous source, is that intending travellers to the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK) on these airlines now have to get their tickets through sales outlets in Ghana where the airlines now consider profitable for business.
Iberia, Spanish national carrier, would suspend its Lagos – Madrid operation from May 12, 2016. There is no doubt that this will lead to a rise in air fares on some foreign routes consequent upon this decision by some foreign airlines to relocate their ticketing and sales offices to Ghana.
With this development, it has not been an exciting experience for travellers who now have to pay more buying tickets in Ghana, sometimes more than 30 per cent the cost of air tickets they would have bought in Nigeria. However, further investigation reveals that Virgin had some seats reserved mostly for its first class and business class passengers.
Following this development, airlines operators say it is not only the air travellers who bear the pains Nigerian travel agents are also badly affected because their revenues have nose-dived in recent times as a result some foreign airlines refused to sell tickets through these agents or directly in their Nigerian offices.
Meanwhile, a local carrier, Medview Airlines that flies the Lagos – London route appears the greatest beneficiary of the on-going crises as it has experienced increase in passenger patronage on the London route. High cost of tickets on the American and European carriers which have relocated to Ghana has compelled most passengers flying to London to patronize Medview.
The reason for this crisis is the decision to halt further financial transactions in Nigeria by some foreign airlines due to some difficulties they had experienced in the last 10 months with the repatriation of funds or income made in Nigeria to their parent companies or overseas accounts due largely to foreign currency scarcity.

Okwein George Parker