Nigeria’s travel sector moves millions of passengers each year, yet the infrastructure sustaining it remains largely invisible, underfunded, and often misunderstood.
The widening gap between demand and capacity carries real consequences for airlines, agents, corporates, and travellers alike.
For two decades, Finchglow Travels has been absorbing much of that strain — pricing the fares quoted by travel agents, cushioning the shocks of foreign exchange volatility that could otherwise cripple small agencies, and negotiating with airlines on behalf of a fragmented industry with limited collective bargaining power.
As Finchglow marks its 20th anniversary, the milestone is less about celebration for its own sake and more about reflection — a moment to spotlight an ecosystem it has quietly supported and to clarify the often-misunderstood role of a travel consolidator in Nigeria’s aviation landscape.
Globally, consolidators are a recognised pillar of the aviation value chain. They operate between airlines and the travel trade, aggregating inventory, securing contracted fares unavailable on the open market, and providing the financial and operational framework that enables thousands of independent agents to compete effectively. In Nigeria, however, that understanding has not fully taken root, leaving structural vulnerabilities the sector is only beginning to confront.
Finchglow Travels’ Managing Director, Ezekiel Ikotun, underscores the importance of closing that knowledge gap. “Our goal is to educate our customers, equip them with the right knowledge, and make them global players. We don’t just sell tickets — we consolidate travel into opportunity, savings, and innovation”, he said.
Finchglow’s two-decade journey reflects the painstaking work of building infrastructure in a market without a clear template — where airlines, agents, and corporates traditionally operated in silos; where foreign exchange policy could reprice tickets overnight; and where the expertise required to run a sustainable travel business was neither widely documented nor systematically shared.
Today, the company supports corporate organisations, retail travel agents, and individual travellers across Nigeria and beyond. Airlines rely on it as a settlement partner. Agents depend on it for access to competitive fares, technology platforms, and operational support. Corporates utilise its expertise to manage complex travel programmes in a persistently unpredictable environment.
The 20th anniversary comes at a turbulent period for Nigerian aviation. Foreign exchange instability continues to drive fare volatility and settlement uncertainty. Profit margins remain razor-thin. Many agents grapple with staffing shortages, limited access to working capital, and widening digital capability gaps. International airlines, meanwhile, weigh Nigeria’s operating environment against competing global route priorities.
Group Managing Director of Finchglow Holdings, Bankole Bernard, speaks candidly about these pressures.
“Airlines are protecting themselves against instability and uncertainty. Broader foreign exchange and policy challenges largely drive fare volatility, and most people operating in this sector are one bad quarter away from finding that out”, Bernard noted.
Rather than reacting to volatility, Finchglow has taken a structural approach. By leveraging dollar inflows from its corporate clientele and negotiating dual-currency settlement arrangements with airline partners, the company has created a buffer that extends across its agent network.
This model enables agents to transact in naira while Finchglow manages the underlying dollar obligations — a safeguard in a market where unmanaged forex exposure has led to the collapse of more than one travel business.
Beyond financial structuring, the company has invested in capacity building across the sector. Through webinars, live industry events, weekly intelligence publications, and online training programmes, Finchglow has sought to narrow the knowledge gap that leaves many Nigerian agents vulnerable. Three live editions were held in 2025 alone, with plans to expand to additional cities in 2026.
In Nigeria’s volatile business climate, longevity in aviation is rarely accidental. It signals adaptability, sustained partnerships, and a business model resilient enough to withstand deregulation, a global pandemic, and a currency crisis that fundamentally altered the economics of international travel.
Bernard has consistently advocated for deeper government engagement on regulatory inconsistencies and increased domestic investment in aviation infrastructure, particularly in Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facilities.
Such investments, he argued, would curb capital flight and strengthen Nigeria’s standing within regional aviation — structural reforms essential for long-term sectoral stability.
That Finchglow has not only endured but has carried a significant segment of Nigeria’s travel trade with it is the true significance of its 20-year milestone.
As Nigeria’s travel ecosystem continues to navigate structural headwinds, Finchglow enters its third decade maintaining the posture it has held from the beginning: operating largely behind the scenes, reinforcing the industry’s foundation, and asserting that an informed, well-resourced travel trade is not a luxury — it is the bedrock upon which the entire sector depends.