Foreign travels, especially for leisure during this year’s summer, may be out 
of the reach of many Nigerians, as the Federal Government’s newly introduced 
exchange rate policy has made airfares on foreign routes to go up by at least 
57 per cent, according to findings by our correspondent.

IATA is a trade association for the world’s airlines consisting of about 260 airlines 
represented in 117 countries and accounting for 83 per cent of the total global air 
traffic.The adoption of N283/dollar as the new interbank exchange rate for the 
conversion of flight tickets, which are globally priced in dollars, by the 
Switzerland-based International Air Transport Association has made international 
airfares on Nigerian routes to rise considerably.
Findings from international airlines and travel agencies operating in the country 
revealed that the airfares might increase further as the summer peak season travels 
begin this week.
A return economy class ticket to Johannesburg from Lagos, which used to go for
 between N110,000 and N130,000, is now priced at between N170,000 and
 N230,000, according to information obtained from travel agents and airlines.
 This represents 66 per cent increase.
Airlines flown by passengers on the Lagos-Johannesburg route are South Africa 
Airways, Arik Air, Kenya Airways, RwandAir and Ethiopian Airlines.
Similarly, a return economy class ticket on the Lagos-London route, which used 
to go for between N250,000 and N450,000 depending on the class a passenger 
chooses to fly, is now priced between N350,000 and N750,000 for various airlines 
plying the route. This represents about 57.1 per cent increase in fares.
Airlines flown by Nigerians on the Lagos-London route are British Airways, 
Virgin Atlantic Airways, Arik Air, Medview Airlines, Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways,
 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Airfrance, Royal Air Maroc, Egypt Air and Kenya Airways.
The famous Lagos-Dubai route that formerly witnessed a return economy ticket
 going for between N130,000 and N180,000, now goes for between N220,000 and
 N320,000, depending on the carrier a passenger chooses to fly. This represents 
about 74.1 per cent increase.
Carriers commonly flown on the route are Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian 
Airlines and Kenya Airways.
According to officials of travel agencies and airlines, international airfares will rise further 
as the summer peak season sale will hit its peak later in July.
Apart from the increase in airfares necessitated by IATA’s decision to increase the 
exchange rate for the pricing of airfares from N200 to N283, top officials of foreign
 airlines operating in Nigeria told our correspondent that the international carriers were 
rushing to recoup the losses caused by the months of delay in repatriating their sales 
proceeds.
Over 25 foreign airlines operating in the country had about $600m stuck in Nigeria as 
of March 2016. This was before the Central Bank of Nigeria floated the naira and made 
dollars available for them to repatriate ticket sales proceeds two weeks ago.
According to air travel experts and airline officials, IATA usually adopts the CBN’s 
interbank official rate for member airlines to price their tickets.
They said only a margin of about N3 was usually added to the CBN interbank official
 exchange rate to cover for logistics costs incurred from currency movements.
A travel expert and Managing Director of Airlines Logistics Management and Support
 Limited, Chief John Adebanjo, said, “The interbank exchange rate moved from N197
 to over N280 per dollar two Mondays ago. This is why IATA moved its exchange rate 
for the conversion of flights tickets from N200 per dollar to N283 per dollar for the
 pricing of international airfares.
“You know that airfares are priced in dollars. This amount will keep changing in line
 with the daily changes at the interbank forex market.”
According to the Chief Executive Officer, Gadshire Travels, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo,
 international airfares are usually priced in dollars and, as such, the increase in the
 interbank rate is expected to lead to a rise in airfares.
He believes that after the summer travels, airfares will come down.
“Moreover, as foreign airlines recover from the losses incurred from the months 
of delay in repatriating their ticket sales proceeds, airfares will drop; we hope,” Adebayo 
added.