Travel agencies and foreign airlines have disagreed over the rising impact of Airline Debit Memos (ADMs) on air travel bookings and businesses.

While the airlines defended their enforcement systems, the travel agencies insisted that the carriers use ADM billings as another source of revenue stream.

The Guardian published last week that Nigeria’s travel agencies lost an estimated N1 billion yearly to ADM billings imposed on them by foreign airlines.

Also, the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA) accused some of the foreign airlines of “weaponising punishment” and had threatened to report the carriers to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for anti-competition practice.

Speaking over the weekend in Lagos at the PartnerPlus Connect Live, organised by Finchglow Travels with the theme: ‘Profit Protection &ADM Control Strategies’, the Sales Manager, Ethiopian Airlines, Lagos, Adetola Alabi, insisted that ADMs were not punitive tools, but necessary safeguards against system abuse and revenue leakage.

Alabi rejected claims that the foreign airlines, especially Ethiopian Airlines, were “weaponising punishments” against travel agencies.
According to her, beyond aviation fuel, airlines incur high costs through booking infrastructure such as Global Distribution Systems (GDS), making it critical to prevent misuse.

However, the Managing Director, Finchglow Travels, Ezekiel Ikotun, said ADMs had become a major financial burden on their operations, saying that it remained a long-standing issue in the industry.

According to him, his organisation alone records about N70 million yearly in ADM-related losses.

The Head of Operations, Finchglow Travels, Ebiere Bekesuo,noted that many errors occurred due to the lack of understanding of booking systems, outdated processes and improper application of ticketing rules.

MEANWHILE,an aviation expert, Chris Aligbe, has faulted moves by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, to concession access gate services at the nation’s airports.

Aligbe, who is the Managing Director of BelujaneKonzult, in an interview with The Guardian in Lagos, insisted that such decisions fall outside the ministry’s authority.

Aligbe spoke on the controversy surrounding the Lagos airport access gate, maintaining that what was proposed by the minister was not an infrastructure concession, but a service arrangement, which should be handled solely by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

According to him, there is a clear distinction between airport infrastructure and services, stressing that only infrastructure falls within the purview of government concessioning, while services are within the jurisdiction of the agencies in charge.

He declared that modern airports globally had shifted from reliance on aeronautical revenue to non-aeronautical revenue streams, including services such as access control, parking and retail operations.