Nigerians walk through needle’s eye to get to Rio

• U-23 fail to fly to Brazil

If you were planning to be in Rio de Janeiro for this year’s Olympic Games and you are yet to buy your flight ticket, forget the trip. That is because you may not secure any seat for Brazil right now unless you are buying the ticket from outside West Africa.

A survey by The Guardian yesterday showed that all the major airlines have been fully booked up to August 15, the exceptions being South African Airways and Qatar Airways. Even at that, to get a seat on the South African Airways flight, you must be ready to part with N1 million, just as the cheapest seat on the Qatar Airways flight to Rio is N1.3 million.

During the 2014 World Cup hosted by Brazil, the costliest ticket went for about N720, 000 and the exchange rate then was N155 to a dollar. Now the exchange rate is about N350 to a dollar, which has affected ticket prizes.

An Ethiopian Airline official, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that the fees have gone sky high because many people have chosen to spend their summer holiday in Brazil due to the games.

“Some of the travel agencies have bought off the tickets for their clients, while passengers from some neighbouring countries, who don’t have direct flights, have chosen to go to Brazil through Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.

“We have flights from Lome and Lagos, but all are fully booked. The earliest you can get a fresh booking is August 15.”

With the latest development, journalists billed to cover the Olympics have resorted to surfing the Internet at night in search of flight tickets for the games, which opens on Friday.

Meanwhile, the national U-23 team has for the second time failed to fly out of its training base in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, reports AfricanFootball.com. The team may now travel to Brazil today.

The reports reveals that top Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) officials are running around to ensure the team finally leaves today.

“They have been at the sports ministry trying to make sure everything about their ticketing and departure is sorted out today at the latest,” the reports quotes an NFF official.

The team was originally scheduled to fly out of the USA for Rio on Friday, but could not as its tickets were not ready. The NFF then announced that the team would depart for Rio yesterday.