APG Backtracks, Cancels Plan to Sell Tickets to Nigerians in Dollars

Barely 24 hours after APG Interline E-Ticketing (IET) issued directives to its trade partners in Nigeria to start selling flight tickets to Nigerian passengers in US Dollars, the agency has backtracked on that decision.

This was disclosed in a counter directive issued to its trade partners in Nigeria today. The memo read in part:

Dear Trade Partners

This serves to recall and cancel the notice we sent out yesterday, the 13 April 2022.

Kindly disregard the said notice. Sales will be continued in Nigerian Naira.

We regret any confusion the earlier notice may have caused.

It'll be recalled that APG Interline E-Ticketing (IET) had, on 13 April, issued a travel advisory to its trade partners in Nigeria directing them to begin the sale of tickets in US dollars, citing difficulty in repatriating airlines’ funds stuck in Nigeria and foreign exchange inconsistencies as the reason. The directive was to take effect from 19 April, 2022.

Airlines on the APG IET platform that fly into Nigeria include Turkish Airlines, South Africa Airways, ASKY Airlines, Egypt Air, Royal Air Maroc, Middle East Airlines, Rwanda Air and Kenya Airways.

Over the years, foreign airlines flying into Nigeria have had to deal with issues of foreign exchange fluctuations and the inability to repatriate their funds, making some of them to temporarily suspend flights to Nigeria, while a few of them stopped flying to Nigeria.

According to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, Nigeria currently holds $283 million worth of foreign airlines fund in the country. He disclosed this during the commissioning of the new international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos in March.

With over 100 offices covering over 170 countries, APG is the world's largest and most successful airline distribution network and general sales agent (GSA). It partners and represents over 200 airlines from all continents of the world.