The association’s president Sam Namathanga said many customers who wanted to travel by air have now opted out.
“We quote our rate in US dollars, but passengers pay in kwacha. So with the 49 percent devaluation, it means an air ticket has considerably gone up.
“Most of people travelling now are government officials and other paid up passengers not those paying from their pockets,” said Namathanga,
With the devaluation, an air ticket to South Africa is at K190 000 from K130 000.
South African Airways is the only airline operating regularly on the Malawi-South Africa route.
Ethiopian and Kenya airlines suspended issuing tickets in Malawi kwacha as they had accumulated a lot of money in their account which could not be repatriated to their countries.
“We are waiting for communication from our headquarters in Nairobi to see how we can progress, but we hope everything will be ok,” Kenya Airlines country manager Ruth Maweu said.
Ethiopian Airlines communication officer Godfrey Lungu hinted that as soon as they get the forex and remit the cash, they will resume normal operations.
