In a correspondence dated March 31, 2023, the BRB informed the airlines that they have the authorization to sell plane tickets in foreign currencies. This comes following another correspondence from October 2022 to the latter specifying in which case it is necessary to pay in local currency. In this article, stakeholders in this sector talk regarding the ins and outs of this decision
The decision to allow airlines to sell airline tickets in foreign currency is a direct consequence of the decline in foreign currency reserves at the BRB.
For any resident of Burundi, buying a plane ticket was done in local currency. This is what was recommended in the exchange regulations of September 2019. “The monetary unit having legal tender in the Democratic Republic of Burundi is the BIF. All monetary transactions concluded locally and concerning goods located in Burundi or services rendered in Burundi are expressed and settled in BIF”, stipulates article 4 of these regulations.
As for the purchase of tickets on Burundian soil for those who want to enter the country, Burundians were protected. They paid in local currency until the correspondence of October 2022. From now on, only students, Burundians who stay abroad for a period of less than 12 months, Burundians attached to diplomatic and consular missions as well as members of their families, Burundians abroad for health care, police and soldiers paid in FBu.
From now on, with this new correspondence, the airlines will decide the currency in which they want to sell the plane tickets.
Everything revolves around the lack of foreign currency in the reserves of the BRB
According to one of the employees of one of the airlines operating in Burundi who requested anonymity, this measure is due to the fact that the companies held a lot of FBu. To repatriate them to their headquarters (Kenya Airways in Nairobi, Air Tanzania in Dar-Es-Salaam, Ethiopian Airlines in Addis Ababa, Uganda Airlines in Kampala, etc.), they need to change them into dollars, which the BRB lacks enormously. This decision comes to tell the airlines to manage to find the currencies and thus the BRB would clear customs, he analyzes. For him, it is an indicator that the BRB seeks at all costs to limit the solicitations towards it.
You have to be prepared for the consequences
However, this decision is not without consequences. Travel agencies decry the decline in the number of air travellers. One of the travel agency agents said: “People who travel to countries in the sub-region will migrate to the road and non-emergency trips will be cancelled. It is very difficult to find dollars these days”.
Thus, two options present themselves to airlines. Either they continue to sell tickets in FBu and manage to find the dollars, or they adopt the payment in dollars and they accept the decrease in customers.