The crisis that engulfed the foreign airlines’ trapped funds in Nigeria in the past years has become a history in the country, Mr. Bankole Bernard, the Group Managing Director, Finchglow Holdings Limited has declared.
He also observed that the inability of Nigerian airlines to be in the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Clearing House was limiting their growth and expansion drive.
Bernard stated these on Thursday in Lagos during an interactive session on the review of 2024 activities and preview of 2025 in the Nigerian aviation industry with aviation correspondents.
According to Bernard, the past year started on a very tough note for Nigeria with millions of dollars of the foreign airlines still trapped in the country.
The crisis, which started in 2022, led to the suspension of Emirates Airlines operations from Nigeria for about 18 months, while some of the foreign airlines also reduced their frequencies into the country.
Emirates Airlines had in December 2022, suspended flight services to Nigeria over its $85 million revenue that was trapped in the country.
In all, about $800 million ticket sales of the foreign airlines operating into Nigeria was trapped until the Federal Government in March 2024, cleared the backlog of debts.
But, Bernard in an interview with the media on Thursday, said that the floating of the exchange market by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration and other policies carried out by the government, would make such a sordid experience impossible in the future.
He also said that the floating exchange market had brought stability and predictability to the economy and indigenous businesses.
He said: “2024 started off on a very tough note. This is so because the airline’s trapped funds were still there. Also, inflation went to all high figures and the cost of tickets became unbearable and airlines started restricting inventories and that created a lot of problems.
“I can tell you for a fact that the issue of airline trapped funds can never come up again in this country. That is gone for good. It has now become an eye opener to everyone that we really don’t need to tie our hands and legs and expect the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide foreign exchange. Let the market be free for all. Anywhere you can get your money, please go ahead.
“In that process, we started experiencing stability. That stability has now brought growth in business for us. The growth in business it brought for us is what is still making us remain in business till date and has given us room to project because we would have been in a dilemma of what 2025 would be.
“But exchange rate has become stable to a very large extent. Exchange rate cannot go to N1,900 again, except some people are manipulating it. The only thing that we will experience is that it will continue to drop to take the natural value that it should be. Once there is stability, it means as a business we can plan and that is what has happened to us.”
Bernard further expressed that it was necessary for Nigerian airlines to be in the IATA Clearing House to remain in business.
He warned that no airline could survive by simply operating from Point A to B, noting that the clearing house would afford the carriers the opportunity to expand their inventories, participate in forex, codeshare and partner with foreign airlines.
“Any airline that wants to survive and grow should not limit itself to a point-to-point operation. The idea of ‘I can do it alone,’ is what is killing most of our local airlines. There is nothing stopping me from selling my tickets beyond point A to Point B,” he said.
(New Telegraph)
