Local Airlines’ Absence From IATA’s Clearing House Limits Growth, Expansion

The group managing director, Finchglow Holdings Limited, Bankole Bernard, has said that the  inability of Nigerian airlines to be in the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Clearing House was limiting their growth and expansion drive.

Bernard stated these during an interactive session on the review of 2024 activities and preview of 2025 in the Nigerian aviation industry with aviation correspondents.

According to Bernard, it was necessary for Nigerian airlines to be in the IATA Clearing House to remain in business.

He argued that no airline could survive by simply operating from Point A to B.

He, however, noted that the clearing house would afford the carriers the opportunity to expand their inventories, participate in forex, codeshare and partner with foreign airlines.

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“Any airline that wants to survive and grow should not limit itself to a point-to-point operation. The idea of ‘I can do it alone,’ is what is killing most of our local airlines. There is nothing stopping me from selling my tickets beyond point A to Point B,” he said.

He said that the floating of the exchange market by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration and other policies carried out by the government, would make such a the issue of trapped funds almost impossible in the future.

Bernard also stated that the floating of the exchange market had brought stability and predictability to the economy and indigenous businesses.

“2024 started off on a very tough note. This is so because the airline’s trapped funds were still there. Also, inflation went to all high figures and the cost of tickets became unbearable and airlines started restricting inventories and that created a lot of problems,” he said.

“I can tell you for a fact that the issue of airline trapped funds can never come up again in this country. That is gone for good. It has now become an eye opener to everyone that we really don’t need to tie our hands and legs and expect the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide foreign exchange. Let the market be free for all. Anywhere you can get your money, please go ahead.

“In that process, we started experiencing stability. That stability has now brought growth in business for us. The growth in business it brought for us is what is still making us remain in business till date and has given us room to project because we would have been in a dilemma of what 2025 would be.

“But the exchange rate has become stable to a very large extent. Exchange rate cannot go to N1,900 again, except some people are manipulating it. The only thing that we will experience is that it will continue to drop to take the natural value that it should be. Once there is stability, it means as a business we can plan and that is what has happened to us.”