APRIL 03, 2024

BY Ryotaro Nakamaru, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- A tsunami warning was issued for southwestern Japan’s Okinawa prefecture after the region was rocked by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake at around 8:58 a.m on Wednesday.

Local residents were urged to evacuate from an expected tsunami of as high as 3 meters, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. Shaking was also felt in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

APRIL 03, 2024

About seven years of waiting is finally over. An indigenous carrier, Air Peace Airline, will today resume the Lagos-London operations, restoring national pride and competition on the busy route.

The pre-departure arrangements for the maiden flight, The Guardian learnt, will commence tonight at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, for the departure scheduled for 12:10 a.m. on Saturday, March 30, 2024.

Spokesperson of the airline, Stanley Olisa, yesterday confirmed that all was set for the inaugural flight, with all seats on the Boeing 777 aircraft fully booked.

Air Peace, the largest domestic carrier by fleet capacity, is making its maiden entry after the exit of the likes of Bellview, Arik Air and Med-View Airlines from the route.

It will be recalled that Med-View Airlines was the last Nigerian carrier to operate on the Lagos-London route, following the exit of Bellview and Arik Air. The European Union (EU), in 2017, restricted Med-View flight operations to the regions over alleged safety concerns and a certification audit that was allegedly not updated. The sanction was partly due to the airline’s delay in having its Boeing767 aircraft audited for international operations, in line with the EU airspace rules.

Air Peace has earlier announced competitive fares on the London route. The fares amount to over 60 per cent slash of the tickets currently offered by the likes of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

With the preliminaries now over, stakeholders are excited about the fare competition on one of the busiest routes for Nigerian travellers.

Currently, a British Airways Economy class return ticket from Lagos to London costs $2,698 which amounts to about N4.7 million (at N1778/1$ International Air Transport Association (IATA) rate on the airline ticketing platform). British Airways Business class costs $8,598, which amounts to about N15.2 million.

Its main rival, Virgin Atlantic, Economy Classic costs $1,745 which amounts to N3.1 million, Economy Delight costs $1,797, which amounts to almost N3.2 million, Economy Premium costs $3,442 or N6.1 million.

However, according to Air Peace, a Return Economy Class Ticket will go for N1.2 million while a Return Business Class Ticket sells for N4 million.

The airline added that Nigerians studying in the UK can now access their special 15 per cent rebate on the already reduced Economy fares.

Travel consultant, Sunday Olumegbon, said the launch and return of indigenous airlines to “cut-throat” international routes is the exact response the Nigerian economy needs at this difficult time.

He said: “I am super excited, and I’ve already booked a seat. As I have been telling my customers, this deal is the best news for the local economy in recent times. We as Nigerians are now being proactive in changing the narratives about our economy and our image. All Nigerians will be a beneficiary, including the airline itself. Congratulations to the Air Peace and the Ministry of Aviation. It must not stop with London. Let’s go to other routes because it is our right,” Olumegbon said.

Another industry expert, Group Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), said the competition has started and it is commendable.

“I hope the foreign airlines and their multiple frequencies and destinations in our country can gradually get reduced.

“This is the beginning of the competition for scrapping the exploitation of the foreign airlines on the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) routes. We hope those in the administration of our government and the management of the agencies will give the necessary support to Air Peace,” Ojikutu said.

APRIL 03, 2024

Air Peace on Tuesday, alerted some passengers intending to book UK flights on its portal were defrauded by fraudsters who cloned its official website.

The alert was issued a few days after the airline inaugurated its groundbreaking direct flight from Nigeria to the United Kingdom.

The airline stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the creators of the website used some of its website identity collaterals to create the fake site, which they presented as the airline’s official booking platform.

Yaba Tech security guard completes OND, says he was inspired by senior staff members....

It reads: “Our attention has been drawn to the existence of a website “www.flyairpeace.uk” purporting to be an official website and defrauding unsuspecting individuals.

“We would like to dissociate the Air Peace brand from this fraudulent site because it is not owned by us. The one and only website of the Air Peace remains “www.flyairpeace.com.

“Members of the public should totally ignore the site, as it is impersonating Air Peace and fleecing passengers.”

The airline on 30th of March, 2024 commenced daily flight to Gatwick, London.

APRIL 05, 2024

Piqued by the bad publicity courtesy of a video making the social media rounds, the management of Arik Air has denied leaving scores of passengers stranded at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The airline said though its Port Harcourt-bound flight made an air return on March 2, 2024, and scheduled passengers in Lagos and Port Harcourt were delayed till the following day, it ensured that no passenger was left behind.

Spokesperson of the airline, Banji Ola, noted that on the evening of Tuesday, March 2, 2024, flight W3 744 Lagos-Port Harcourt was compelled to make an air return due to adverse weather conditions, specifically heavy rainfall and thunderstorms in Port Harcourt.

“Consequently, both the Lagos-Port Harcourt (W3 744) and Port Harcourt – Lagos (W3 745) flights had to be cancelled.

“By the time of the cancellation, our banking facilities at the airport had ceased operations, rendering funds unfeasible at that moment. However, the passengers were promptly briefed on the situation and advised to return the following day for re-protection on available flights,” Ola stated.

On Wednesday, March 3, 2024, Arik noted that all the affected passengers from both Lagos and Port Harcourt were successfully accommodated on available morning and evening flights.

“Contrary to claims, no single passenger was left stranded at Port Harcourt Airport. The video footage in question likely captured a moment of agitation among some passengers.

“We emphasize that at Arik Air, safety is our foremost priority. Despite operating modern aircraft, we maintain a strict policy to avoid flying in inclement weather conditions, which necessitated the cancellation of the affected flight.” The airline apologised to customers whose travel plans were disrupted by this unforeseen circumstance.

APRIL 05, 2024

(Bloomberg) -- The UK government has pushed back the deadline for some airports to install next-generation security scanners that won’t require passengers to remove liquids and electronic items from hand-held bags.

Airports struggling to meet the June deadline now have an extra year to switch over to the advanced luggage scanners, the Department for Transport said in a statement on Thursday. The government is considering serious financial penalties for airports that fail to meet the new target, the department said. 

The extension, which applies to large airports and was made on a case-by-case basis, means passengers traveling through UK airports will have to stick to the 100-milliliter bottle restriction for another year in case they end up in a security lane with the older scanners. 

The original cutoff for implementing the new equipment was 2022, but the government delayed the date until June 2024 because of the pandemic. Airports said the summer deadline was ambitious, with the UK’s four largest hubs set to miss the switch-over, Bloomberg News reported in January.

The Manchester Airport Group, which operates London Stansted, Manchester and East Midlands hubs, has been given an extension to the deadline as it expects the project to be fully complete next year. The airports will have the scanners up and running in many of the security lanes by June, MAG said in an emailed statement.

London Gatwick said in January that it had pushed back on the previous deadline over concerns of passenger disruption during the busy summer travel season. The hub said it will have made significant progress by June and plans to finish installing the remainder of the scanners in the first quarter of 2025. 

Read More: UK Airports Poised to Miss Deadline to End Liquid Searches

London Heathrow had no immediate comment. London City Airport has already installed the machines.

UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper said in the statement it was important to give certain airports “a second chance to get the job done,” and that it was their responsibility to install the scanners.

Birmingham Airport is among the airports on track to have all its scanners in place by the June deadline. Chief Executive Officer Nick Barton said last month that the West Midlands hub has doubled up on staff to ease the flow of passengers and bags through the scanners.

“We are putting a lot of money into it to make sure we get off to the best possible start,” he said.

--With assistance from Charlotte Ryan.

APRIL 05, 2024

By Elizabeth Adegbesan

The Naira on Friday appreciated to N1,245 per dollar in the parallel market, from N1,250 per dollar on Thursday.

Similarly, the Naira appreciated in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM, to N1,251.05 per dollar.

Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM fell to N1,251.05 per dollar from N1,255.07 per dollar on Thursday, indicating N4.02 appreciation for the naira.

The market recorded an intraday high of N1,281 per dollar and an intraday low of N1,220 per dollar resulting in a N61 margin.

The volume of dollars traded in the market increased by 78.6 percent to $248.27 million from $138.99 million traded on Thursday.

Consequently, the margin between the parallel market and NAFEM rates widened to N6.05 per dollar from N5.07 per dollar on Thursday.

APRIL 08, 2024

Written by Yusuf Babalola

End users of used imported vehicles also known as Tokunbo, are yet to heave a sigh of relief despite reduction on Customs duty of imported used vehicles also known as Tokunbo, despite appreciation in the value of naira against the United States dollar.

LEADERSHIP reports that the cost of Tokunbo cars surged by over 100 per cent between May last year and last month, on the back of the naira woes against the dollar, pushing fairly used vehicles out of the reach of many potential buyers.

Fairly used cars are popular among the middle class and small businesses, with the United States of America and Germany being the main source to Nigeria.

However, the naira has appreciated significantly from N1,615/$1 on 15th March, 2024 to N1,251/$1 on Friday, 5th April, 2024.

Also, the Customs FX rate for computing  duty on imported cargo dropped from N1,515/$1 in March, 2024 to N1,251/$1 on Saturday, April 6, 2024.

Accordingly, while naira appreciated 22.5 per cent at the official market, Customs FX appreciated by 17.4 per cent in the last three weeks.

To this end, the cost of purchasing imported cargoes at the country of origin and import duty payment at Nigeria seaport have dropped drastically.

With this, end users demand reduction in prices of imported used items especially vehicles which has remained astronomically high.

We expect prices to be favourable in the coming months should the exchange rate maintain the current trend. The effect may be felt in the next few months, maybe one or two months from today,” Chukwu Innocent, a end user stated.

But, a visit to an online marketplace for sales of used and new vehicles in Nigeria, www.jiji.ng showed that sellers still maintained the price of vehicles before naira started gaining momentum.

For instance, a foreign used (Tokunbo), 2009 edition of RX 300 still maintained its old price of N11.5 million; 2007 RX 350 goes for N138.8 million; 2017 ES 350 goes for N27 million while 2012 Lexus 350 goes for N19.5 million.

Also, a 2010 Toyota Sienna sells for N14.4 million; 2013 Toyota Camry goes for N13.7 million; 1012 Toyota Corolla, N9.3 million; 2010 Toyota Venza is N10.5 million while a 2006 Toyota Corolla still maintained its N7 million price.

Mercedes Benz 2007 M class goes for N9.4 million; 2012 GLK 350 sells for N13.5 million; 2004 C230, N7.2 million; 2016 C300, N26.5 million and 2010 C300 sells foe N9.7 million.

 

Foreign used 2013 Honda Pilot goes for N14 million; 2006 Honda Pilot is N5 million while 2009 Honda Accord goes for N6.5 million and 2011 Honda Accord sells for N9.5 million.

 

Speaking to LEADERSHIP, the president, Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON), Prince Akinola Adedoyin, said it will take months before prices of foreign used vehicles can come down.

 According to him, while it takes months to import, vehicle dealers must sell off their old stock bought with high dollar rate before importing new stocks that will sell lesser.

 

“Well, you know that even if the dollar goes down, the goods bought within these high time needed to be sold before their could be a change. You also know that purchasing power has not been commensurate with the increase then. Also, when the dollar went up all vehicles that came in would be sold before the price can be reduced but people are expecting that once dollar drops today, the price should drop the next day but it doesn’t work that way because dollar rate has been rising since December to mid March before it started going down and buyers want price to reflect immediately that’s not the way to go,” Adedoyin stated. 

Adedoyin said the fairly use vehicle sector  controlled major sector of the economy because road transport is readily available to the masses

 

“Well, we should expect it to drop soon but don’t forget that except the new vehicles comes that is when it has the capacity of forcing down the prices of the old one still in stock because when new ones are coming in and the prices are low then it will definitely bring down the cost or you risk not selling even though one cannot give a timeline because it depends on purchasing power.

 

“Apart from three months that it takes to import, even that Importation depend on the cash crunch because some importers stopped importation and diverted into other businesses and our own sector controlled the major economy because in this country now, the road is the only available mode of transportation opened to millions of Nigeria so, whatever affect it, affect all the strata of the economy but we are hopeful that in the next few months, the price will come down,” Adedoyin told LEADERSHIP.

 

The president general, Berger Motor Dealers, Lagos, Chief Metchie Nnadiekwe, corroborated Prince Adedoyin, saying the price of fairly used vehicles are expected to drop in three months.

 

According to him, vehicles bought during the increase in exchange rate would be sold and new one will bring down the price.

 

“For me, the dollar rate has come down but we can’t expect the price to come down immediately because the vehicles on various stands are being bought during the high rate of dollar. What about the one we bought then? Do we sell at a loss?,” he asked rhetorically.

 

He continued, “We have to sell the way we bought and the new one we are buying will lower the price. But, I can assure you that  gradually, the price will come down. We also want it to come down because we are not enjoying it either. Customers are not buying vehicles now,” he lamented.

 

“Maybe in three months, when we receive new consignment that we ordered and after we sold the old one we have bought, the price will drop,” he stated.

APRIL 08, 2024

Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development has announced that Emirates has concluded plans to resume flight operations to Nigeria before June, 2024.

Keyamo disclosed this on Arise Tv on Monday, stating that he had received a letter from Emirates on the return of the carrier.

He however noted that the first announcement in October last year over the proposed resolution of the face-off between both nations was not fake news but was ‘hasty’.

“Emirates flight resumption is almost happening. I just received a letter from Emirates. The letter is on my phone now. They are ready to come back. They will announce the date because to restart a route, they have to get an aircraft for that route.”

“I am announcing to Nigerians for the first time; that I just received a letter from Emirates now. The letter is with me. I have a hard copy thanking you for all the efforts we made. Mr. President was the showman here. He was the one who pushed for it. He made my job easy because he went there, and had a diplomatic shuttle to resolve all the issues.

“That was why I said the last announcement was hasty and not fake news. They will announce the date for their next flight. We have received a letter confirming that all the issues have been resolved and prepared to start coming back. It may be before June.”

Emirates in 2022 suspended flight operations to Nigeria — for the second time in the year – over its inability to repatriate its revenue trapped in the country.

APRIL 09, 2024

Airfares for flights out of Nigeria are expected to drop further as the naira has extended its gains against the dollar and the Emirates Airline plans to resume operations into Nigeria.

Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, announced on Monday that Emirates had concluded plans to resume flight operations to Nigeria before June.

Keyamo disclosed this on Arise TV, saying that he had received a letter from Emirates on the return of the carrier.

Stakeholders in the aviation sector have said that the strengthening of the naira and the resumption of flights by Emirates will cause ticket fares to reduce drastically.

BusinessDay had earlier reported that airfares from Nigeria to other countries have in recent times seen a significant drop, following the appreciation of naira and the competition arising from Air Peace commencement of Lagos-London route.

The pressure on the foreign exchange market has eased in recent weeks after the naira fell to record lows.

The large naira depreciation caused by the FX reforms that started last year had led to a steep rise in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) rate for ticket sales.

Last week, the IATA rate for ticket sales in Nigeria dropped from almost N1,800/$ a few months ago to N1,395/$.

The drop in the rate quickly saw the prices of tickets drop across several destinations.

A one-way ticket from Lagos to London on British Airways that was sold for N3 million (Economy Class) and N11 million (Business Class) cost N1.7 million and N6.8 million respectively.

On Lufthansa, the price of a one-way ticket from Lagos to London dropped from N3 million (Economy) and N9 million (Business) to N2 million and N7 million respectively.

On Virgin Atlantic, the price for Economy, Economy Premium and Business Class fell from N2 million, N5 million and N12 million to N1.5 million, N3 million and N6 million respectively.

Susan Akporiaye, president National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), said that when the naira was as low as N1,850 to a dollar, ticket inventory available on the Lagos-London route was between N5 million to N6 million.

“The rate of exchange determines the price of tickets. Now the rate of exchange has dropped, BA and Virgin Atlantic are charging as low as N1.1 million and N1.2 million for a return ticket from Lagos to London. As the naira gains more strength, fares will continue to drop. Air Peace will also have to further reduce fares; if not, they will not be able to compete on the route,” Akporiaye said.

She said airlines also resumed promo fares because of Air Peace, adding that if Emirates resumes flights into Nigeria, tickets from Nigeria would further drop.

She said: “Promo tickets for Virgin are N900,000. Egypt Air is also doing a 15 percent discount as promo. Tickets are priced in dollars. If the rate of exchange comes down to N700 to a dollar, then fares will come to as low as N500,000.

“Emirates is the master of price war because they have the money. Emirates, despite suspending flights in Nigeria for over two years, has been paying their staff and keeping their office space. Emirates will come back and slash ticket prices to London. This is when the price war will begin. Emirates don’t depend on sales of tickets to survive.”

Kingsley Nwokoma, president of the Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria, told BusinessDay that a substantial amount of trapped funds have been paid to foreign airlines and that was why foreign airlines released lower fares.

“The reason why fares went up in the first place was because low inventories were shut down. Now the government has shown enough goodwill to make payments; so it is in the interest of airlines to also show some goodwill to Nigerians by making low inventories available. To the best of my knowledge, CBN has cleared all the backlog; the only outstanding payments are the ones with the commercial banks,” Nwokoma said.

He said it was at the same time CBN cleared the trapped funds that the naira gained strength. This, according to him, made fares drop.

“Fortunately, all these happened the same time Air Peace commenced its Lagos-London flight,” he added.

He said the resumption of Emirates flights will mean more competition on international routes and this will mean more choices for passengers.

Last year, IATA disclosed that Nigeria owed $812.2 million out of $2.27 billion trapped funds, making it the country with the highest trapped funds globally.

The top five countries that accounted for 68.0 percent of blocked funds were Nigeria ($812.2 million), Bangladesh ($214.1 million), Algeria ($196.3 million), Pakistan ($188.2 million) and Lebanon ($141.2 million).

APRIL 09, 2024

The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) has disclosed that for last quarter of the year 2023, ticket sales reduced by 40 percent when compared to same period in 2022.

According to Susan Akporiaye, the trapped funds issue, the rate of exchange and its scarcity and restrictions of the lower inventories to the travel agencies from Nigeria by airlines were factors that led to the drop in ticket sales for last quarter of 2023.

“It was difficult for us to be able to get foreign exchange. The restrictions put by the airlines because of foreign exchange availability led to the drop in sales from Nigeria. Our members had to put up survival mechanism.

“Majority of the tickets we sold were out of Nigeria. Those sales were not attributed to the Nigerian market. If we are going to access the Ghana market or any West African country market, they would see an unusual growth, while it is a downward trend for the Nigerian market. This is because the airlines closed the lower inventories while the same lower inventories were open in other markets.

“So, what we did as travel agencies was to move our sales to other markets. Interestingly, the travel is still from Nigeria. Passengers still travel from Lagos to London but the tickets were bought in Ghana. So, the revenue is going to be attributed to Ghana and not to us,” Akporiaye explained.

She noted that for passengers traffic in terms of travel; the percentage at which it reduced was very small but reduction in sales was 40 percent.

Speaking at the pre-48th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of NANTA in Lagos on Tuesday, which is scheduled to hold between April 23 through 27, 2024 in Lagos with the theme: ‘Unlocking Africa’s Economic Potential: Travel and Tourism as catalyst for intra Africa Business Investment and Trade,’ Akporiaye said that the last four years of her leadership as NANTA President had been challenging, especially with trapped funds of foreign airlines in the country, restrictions of the lower inventories to the travel agencies from Nigeria by airlines and the unstable foreign exchange, which stopped some passengers from flying through the nation’s airports.

On the recognised NANTA members by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Akporiaye gave the figures as about 1,500 and 2000, respectively.

She emphasised that when she assumed office about four years ago, NCAA had only 300 travel agencies in its book, but said enhanced relationship, unification and advocacy increased the number to the present figure.

Besides, she stressed that NANTA was working with NCAA to fish out quacks in the profession, noting that to be recognised as a travel agency, such an organisation must have NCAA certification, recommended by at least one financial member of NANTA and must be recognised by the association.

She was however quick to say that “there are quacks in every profession.”

On the forthcoming AGM, Akporiaye stated that Mr. Humphery Geiseb, the High Commissioner, Namibia to Nigeria would be the keynote speaker and special guest.

Geiseb would speak on ‘Destination Africa: Exploring Technology and Innovation Driven Tourism, A Call to Action for Professionals in Travel and Tourism.’

Also, Festus Keyamo and Lola Ace-John, the Ministers of Aviation and Aerospace Development and Tourism, respectively are some of the special guests of the day and would deliver goodwill messages at the AGM.

Besides, Allen Oyeama, Chairman of Air Peace would speak on collaborative strategies for aviation stakeholders and professionals within ‘SAATM Policy and Economic Framework,’ while Mr. Ikechi Uko, founder of Akwaaba Travel Market, would speak on identifying business, trade, and investment prospects in emerging Africa travel and tourism markets.

She further explained that NANTA would unveil an Intra Africa Tourism Trade Exhibition, which it considered as an ambitious and legacy project that the association could sustainably grow as a window to connect Africa and Nigeria with the world.