COVID – 19: travel operators task govt on bailout, postpones Kano AGM

• Loses over N180 billion in revenue, to downsize operations
• 100,000 jobs at risk

As the travel industry continues to groan over the weight of Coronavirus (Covid – 19), with airlines losing over $200 billion in revenue and still, the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), has called on the Federal Government to provide bailout for travel agencies to guard against default and the attendant socio  – economic impact arising for shutting down businesses.

This call was made today by the president of the association, Bankole Bernard in Lagos even as announced the postponement of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the travel agencies body, which was slated to hold between March 25 and 28 in Kano.

Speaking on the impact of Covid – 19 on the travel industry, with aviation worse hit, Bernard said travel agencies are presently groaning from the effect as their business is almost on hold due to restriction and ban on travels across the world. 

He said if this persist that the agencies are at the risk of defaulting on the remittance to the airlines and if this happens many of them will be forced to close down shops.

To stem this, he said the association is requesting a bailout from the Federal Government in order to keep it operations going since travels is on hold. ‘‘We actually need a bailout for our remittance period from the International Association of Air Transport (IATA).

‘‘NANTA is putting a position to IATA to look at how we can defer our payment from the mandatory two weeks window to a month and above. Therefore, we need the government support in form of bailout granting us access to soft loan in the form of interest free loan and overdraft to enable us meet up with our obligations to IATA,’’ he said.

He further added that: ‘‘Our IATA license is at risk if we are not able to remit to IATA and we have never got into default and we don’t want to go to default.’’ 

Last year travel agencies in Nigeria netted $1 billion revenue in ticket sales but this year, he said it is already declining due to Convid – 19 as they have recorded over N180 billion lost and still counting.  

He said if the situation continues unabated that it will lead to shut down of businesses, with over 100, 000 jobs lost and other socio – economic issues as fallout given that travel agencies, which is the downstream operators in travel business employs and cater for a lot of the Nigerian populace in different ways.

On the AGM of the association, which was scheduled to hold next week in Kano, he announced that the AGM has been put on hold to later date and that this decision was reached for the good of the members and the general public as the association as a responsible professional travel body is committed to promoting healthy travel and would not want to put the life of its members at risk.

However, he said that the present executive council in adherence to its constitution will next week handle over to a new executive council to avoid a vacuum and since all the positions that were to have been contested for at the AGM are by single contestant and unopposed.

Wole Shadare