The president of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies, NANTA, Mr. Bernard Bankole has decried the bad government policies in the aviation industry.
Bankole emphasised that poor government policies are killing the country’s aviation business.
Speaking during a breakfast meeting/ press conference at the NANTA secretariat in Lagos on Tuesday July 5, Mr Bankole observed that some of the airlines are leaving as a result of these bad government policies.
He stated some of these bad policies, like the government foreign exchange policy among others are affecting the airlines and forcing them to leave the country.
“Bad government policies are frustrating our business. Even the new policies on foreign exchange came late when a lot of damages have been done. Even the new policies are not even clear. The airlines have now stopped selling cheaper fares to Nigerians and are now selling higher fares and is our people who is suffering the consequences,” he said.
He lamented that the most painful aspect of it is that the federal government is still collecting their taxes in dollars instead of collecting it in naira.
He observed that this is one of such bad policies that is killing the industry.
Bankole stressed the need for NANTA to engage the government more and also to understand the government and their policies better and the need to also educate the masses on government policies concerning the aviation industry.
“Looking at the classification of air travel as luxury by the federal government, this is wrong because air travel is not luxury but just a safe means of travelling to save time. Most Nigerians who travel, travel for business and not for leisure.
Instead, those that should be classified as luxury are those who owns private jets. They are the category that should be classified as luxury,” he explained.
NANTA boss maintained that even the domestic airlines that supposed to take advantage of the prevailing situation in the country are not stepping up their games to grow their businesses by playing the roles of the international carriers.
He said the government cannot not afford to neglect the aviation industry because it contributes significantly to the growth of the country’s GDP.
The NANTA president advocated for flag carriers in the country and not necessarily national carrier which has been in the pipeline for a long time now.
Bankole noted that even the rate of travelling by Nigerians have reduced drastically as the number of passengers travelling has reduced, adding that this has also affected NANTA business.
This has led to loss in government revenue, job loss, loss of revenue by NANTA members, this has negatively impacted on the businesses of our members, he noted.
NANTA boss stated that even Etihad Airlines has communicated to the Association that by August 1, it will start implementing zero commission for the agencies.
He observed that good government policies is what is needed to change all these things for the country.
