After plunging the industry into crisis in 2016 for their inability to repatriate funds from Nigeria, foreign airlines have quietly completed repatriation of $600 million (about N216 billion) from the country.
This, according to investigation, happened without the kind of controversy generated while fighting to repatriate the trapped funds in the last two years.
Many Nigerian citizens working for foreign airlines were relieved of their jobs, after some of the airlines shut down operations, or threatened to do so in Nigeria in 2016, owing to the failure of the Federal Government to allow repatriation of their earnings.
Our correspondent gathered that the repatriation started in March this year.
The Director-General, International Air Transport Association, Alexandre de Juniac, disclosed at the 74th Annual General Meeting holding in Syney, Austrialia, that a total amount of $600 million was cleared by the Federal Government recently for the foreign airlines, most of which had yet to return to the country, after shutting down and pushing thousands of Nigerians into the job market.
The IATA boss was quoted in a report by the association, which comprised over 280 airlines, that “the association was encouraged by the recent developments in Nigeria where the Federal Government succeeded in clearing $600 million backlog of airline funds trapped in the country.”
According to IATA, the amount of airline funds blocked from repatriation totalled $4.9 billion at the end of 2017, which was down seven per cent, compared to year-end 2016. He, however, noted that airline funds remained blocked in some 16 countries.
De Juniac listed the top five markets with blocked funds as Venezuela, where airlines have been unable to repatriate $3.78 billion; Angola, where approximately $386 million remains blocked; Sudan, where $170 million is blocked; Bangladesh, where $95 million is trapped; and Zimbabwe, where $76 million remains unrecovered.
He said, “We have some recent success. The $600 million backlog in Nigeria has been cleared and we made $120 million of progress from a peak of over $500 million in Angola. I encourage the government of Angola to work with airlines to help reduce this backlog further.
“The connectivity provided by aviation is vital to economic growth and development. Aviation supports jobs and trade and helps people to lead better lives. But airlines need to have confidence that they will be able to repatriate their revenues in order to bring these benefits to markets. We are encouraged by the recent developments in Nigeria and Angola and hope other states will also move quickly to address blocked funds.”
At the height of the crisis in 2016, the Spanish national airline, Iberia, withdrew from Nigeria and has yet to return. The United States carrier, United Airline, also stopped its services between Houston and Lagos. Emirates scaled down its operations to daily flight into Lagos from the two daily flights it operated. The carrier stopped its Abuja
operation.
Other carriers reduced capacity on the lucrative Nigerian route. Job losses in the aviation sector was unprecedented in the sector.
