Air fares in Sudan soar due to local currency's devaluation

Air fares in Sudan skyrocketed this week after aviation authorities ordered airlines to price tickets in line with a new exchange rate mechanism that sharply devalued the local currency. Under the exchange regime introduced in October in a bid to tackle an acute shortage of foreign currency, the Sudanese pound was devalued to 47.5 per US dollar from 29 pounds per US dollar previously. That has led to a surge in the cost of many goods and services, but air ticket prices had been set according to the customs exchange rate — 18 pounds per dollar — until Wednesday when the country’s Civil Aviation Authority announced the hike in a memo sent to airlines.<br/>