A former Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren, has urged the Federal Government to allow foreign carriers to allow passengers in First Class and Business Class cabins to pay for tickets in United States dollar while passengers in economy class can pay in Naira.
The former NCAA chief said doing this would help the carriers to repatriate their funds with ease and put a stop to the issue of trapped funds or at best, help to significantly eliminate the problem, particularly at a time the country is not earning enough dollars to meet with the myriads of pressure on foreign exchange.
Demuren gave the advice at the Aviation Round Table (ART) second quarter 2022 Breakfast Business Meeting, with the theme, “Perspective in Multi-Layer Aviation Security System and Passenger Facilitation” in Lagos yesterday.
Demuren’s position aligns with that of the foreign carriers that had initially planned to start asking passengers from Nigeria to pay for their tickets in dollars to avoid a situation that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is incapable of helping them to repatriate their accumulated funds.
Airlines on APG Interline Electronic Ticketing Agreements (IET) GP code 275 had in April this year disclosed that they would start accepting Dollars for tickets.
