Delta Gives Reasons For Selling Tickets in Dollars As International Carriers Groan over Trapped Funds

In the past six months, there has been an increase of more than 25% ($394 million) in the airline funds that are due for repatriation but still being held back by governments.  The total amount of payments frozen is currently close to $2.0 billion. IATA has said.

According to the International Air Transport Association,  IATA, $551 million in airline money have been prevented from leaving Nigeria (IATA). The problems with repatriation started in March 2020, when the country's demand for foreign currency surpassed its supply. Nigerian authorities are collaborating with the airlines to identify ways to make money available.

Delta Air Lines confirmed that it now sells airline tickets to Nigerian passengers in US dollars. The airline said this was done as part of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) arrangements it has with the federal government. This is done to prevent the country's trapped funds from steadily rising.

Delta Air Lines’ Sales Director for Africa, Middle East, and India, Mr. Jimmy Echelgruen said, “What we have done is that we are now connecting through the issuance of tickets in US dollars because that is the way that we can continue with our service uninterrupted. We are allowed to do that with the bilateral agreement between the US Government and the Nigerian Government and we are providing adequate availability to passengers from Nigeria to all over the world.

“With this, we have opened up more inventories allowing passengers to travel with us, but they need to pay in dollars. We will continue to operate as usual and our load on our flight is still very good.

“There is no grey area and it is part of our agreement. The agreement says we can collect in either naira or US dollars. We now sell our seats in dollars and that is going to be the case until we can resolve this crisis.”

However, he made no mention of the precise sum of money held hostage in Nigeria. The difficulty of repatriation involves no fewer than 25 foreign airlines that fly into Nigeria. British Airways, Ethiopia, Egypt, Emirates, and Lufthansa are a few of the significant airlines that have been impacted by the issue.

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