The depreciation of the naira against the United States dollar by 55 per cent at the official foreign exchange market has led to a sharp rise in international airfares.
It would be recalled that the naira fell from approximately 900/dollar to over 1,400/dollar on Monday after the FMDQ Exchange, which records the nation’s official exchange rate, reviewed its methodology for calculating the rate.
The review came after the Central Bank of Nigeria accused approved foreign exchange dealers of reporting false figures.
However, barely 24 hours after the movement of the official exchange rate, international airlines operating in Nigeria moved the exchange rate for pricing their tickets from about N900/dollar to N1,421/dollar.
The development led to approximately 55 per cent in international airfares on Nigerian routes.
Findings by the Punch on Wednesday showed that ticket prices on Lagos-London-Lagos, Lagos-New York-Lagos, Lagos-Johannesburg, Lagos, among other top destinations had increased commensurately.
The President of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies, Susan Akporiaye, who confirmed the sharp increase, said the development would compound the woes of travel agencies.
“We have been feeling the pinch for a long time, and the situation is just getting worse. People who are travelling are not doing so for fun; they are travelling for serious business like medical or even education. It’s no longer about leisure,” Akporiaye said in an interview with The Punch.
He noted that a ticket that remained at $1000 had suddenly risen from about N1 million to about N1.5m.
Price checks by the newspaper revealed that the average airfare ticket to some of the high-traffic international destinations like London cost N2.77m; Dubai N2.65m; New York N3.2667m; and Johannesburg N3.05m.
For the Lagos-Johannesburg-Lagos route, depending on the travel date, Africa World Airlines charges N2.7m, while Turkish Airlines sets the price at N3.4m. The airfare for a round-trip from Lagos to Dubai is N2.3m with Turkish Airlines, and N3m with Lufthansa.
