Foreign airlines operating in Nigeria sold tickets worth about $1 billion from January to December 2019, BusinessDay’s investigations have revealed.
The amount indicated that there was a reduction of seven hundred million naira worth of revenue generated from tickets sold in 2019, as the foreign airlines sold tickets worth $1.7 billion in of the year 2018 against $1 billion they realised in 2019.
Bernard Bankole, president of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) disclosed that airlines had serious competition amongst themselves as they kept reducing fares just to make as much sales as possible.
“So while they were reducing fares, they were increasing capacity. There was serious competition among the airlines. Therefore there were lesser yields.
Bankole also said the travel restrictions by President Trump to America also caused reduction in ticket sales. The Xenophobic attacks on Nigerians also had a major impact, as a lot of Nigerians travel to South Africa.
He said for 2020, ticket sales will further reduce as a result of the coronavirus.
Following President Donald Trump’s travel ban on travel from many European countries in an effort to halt the coronavirus, Nigeria may be one of the worst hit countries as the US-Europe routes account for over 35percent of revenues on tickets sold by travel agencies annually.
Bankole said before the ban, Nigeria’s aviation sector has seen about 20 percent decline in passenger traffic as a result of Coronavirus and will experience further decline.
“I understand the challenges of the times, but let us persevere, let’s hold on until the light breaks, the tide turns, and the times change for the better. Let us together inspire people with our cheerful attitude and positive thinking whilst we face these difficult times courageously.
“The year 2020 till date has been challenging. Movements have been restricted globally, United States is putting a ’30 days’ restriction to everyone from mainland Europe, several embassies have shut down, there have thousands of flight cancellations, there are new rules on yellow fever vaccination for inbound travellers and the dollar rate has increased,” Bernard told travel agents in a statement.
IFEOMA OKEKE
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