South African Airways rejects Naira for payment of tickets

South African Airways will henceforth reject Naira for payment of its flight tickets.

The airline disclosed this in a statement issued on Wednesday and addressed to its trade partners. It added that the decision would take effect immediately.

The development may not be unconnected with the $450 million belonging to some foreign carriers and trapped in the country. .

The airline hopes the decision will ensure seamless repatriation of its funds to South Africa rather than getting them trapped in Nigeria.

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The Southern African carrier declared that from Wednesday passengers can only issue Sold inside Ticketed inside (SITI), that is, trips emanating from Lagos-Johannesburg-Lagos tickets in naira.

In other words, payments for all tickets issued in Nigeria will be in Naira in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy on purchase of flight tickets in the country.

The statement read: “Please be informed that effective from Wednesday 10th August 2022, you can ONLY issue SITI (i.e. LOS-JNB-LOS) tickets in Naira. ALL other tickets, i.e. SOTI and SOTO, have to be issued in USD.