Keyamo Intervenes In Feud Between FCCPC, Air Peace, Accuses Commission Of Carelessness

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has waded in on the disagreement between Air Peace and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).

FCCPC’s invitation of Air Peace over alleged exploitative fares had sparked a row with Air Peace faulting FCCPC over claim that it is instigating the airline.

On Friday, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air Peace, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Olajide, addressed a press conference, faulting FCCPC’s claim of exploitative fares — the claim the airline said wasn’t backed by any empirical evidence.

Olajide stated that globally airline’s ticket pricing is determined by the operating cost, while giving the cost components of a flight ticket.

The COO explained that going by the high cost of operation, with aviation fuel alone gulping N7m on a one-hour flight, a one-hour flight should have cost between N500,000 and N700,000.

But the FCCPC replied to the airline on Sunday, cautioning it against obstructing ongoing inquiry arising from petitions over alleged exploitative fares.

Director, Corporate Affairs of FCCPC, Ondaje Ijagwu in a statement said, “some other petitions before the Commission accuse Air Peace of being the one instigating other airlines (which ironically possess far smaller fleet individually) to hike fares in the local aviation industry.

“Also, some petitioners have accused Air Peace of cancelling flights arbitrarily without care nor compensation for passengers.

“Only penultimate Friday (November 29), the domestic wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport witnessed a rampage by irate passengers of Air Peace at 10PM following more than four-hour delay on the Abuja-Lagos service, thereby threatening public peace. It took the intervention of a combined team of security agents to restore normalcy that night at the nation’s premium international gateway.

“For the avoidance of doubt, let it therefore be noted that no amount of blackmail or cowboy tactics can stop the Commission from the ongoing thorough investigation of the allegations against Air Peace with a view to taking the appropriate action in accordance with the provisions of the FCCPA.”

However, Keyamo in his intervention said the FCCPC should have contacted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) directly instead of going public on the alleged exploitative fares by Air Peace.

Speaking on national TV on Sunday he said, “I think it was a very careless statement – I say that with all apology – by the agency, making such a statement without consulting the core agency involved in regulation, which is the NCAA. The power to regulate these airlines and for the airlines to inform about their price increase and all of that is domiciled in the NCAA; that is the core agency.”

“They should have contacted the NCAA for them to look at the books, which we have been doing, so we would have given them facts. But to single out a few airlines that we are struggling to expose to the world for them to get more enhanced capacity, it was a bit careless,” he added