Nigerians spend over $4bn on foreign flight tickets in 15 months

About $4.66 billion has been spent by Nigerians on foreign air travels in 15 months.

Data collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the amount was sold to foreign airlines between the first quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.

Foreign airlines buy foreign exchange from the CBN to enable them to repatriate their ticket sale proceeds to their various home countries. About 25 foreign airlines currently operate into Nigeria.

breakdown of the CBN data, according to Punch, showed that $496.44 million was sold to foreign airlines in Q1 2022; $1.03 billion in Q2 2022; $1.36 billion in Q3 2022; $887.17 million in Q4 2022; and $890.3 million in Q1 2023.

The figures indicate an increase of 79 per cent between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023.

Despite the amount sold to the carriers, foreign airlines have been struggling to repatriate their funds.

In March, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the top global trade association of international airlines, appealled to the Nigerian government to allow international airlines to repatriate their funds trapped in the country.

IATA said airlines’ trapped funds in Nigeria rose to $743.7 million in January from the $662 million recorded last December.

“For over a year, Nigeria has been the country with the highest amount of airline-blocked funds in the world,” the IATA said.

Since the amount increased from $450m in May 2022, to $464m in July of the same year, the trapped funds have been linked to some of the higher fares on Nigerian routes.