The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) has approached the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for immediate intervention in the lingering complaints over the high fares being charged by foreign carriers and the closing of lower inventories to travel agents by the airlines.
The association’s President, Mrs. Susan Akporiaye, led a team of the association to the FCCPC’s management during the week to formally lodge a complaint that efforts by NANTA to amicably resolve the contentious issues with the foreign carriers over the past few months did not yield the desired results.
A statement by the association indicated that Akporiaye restated the executive’s commitment to protecting the members and businesses against all forms of unwarranted exploitation and unfair practices by any industry operator and that the visit was undertaken to enable the team get the proper guidance from the FCCPC’s management on the contentious issues.
She pleaded: “Sir, we strongly view from our professional experience and knowledge of fare mechanism, that the reactions of foreign airlines on trapped funds are grossly unfair to the Nigerian public and gravely threaten the survival of NANTA members.”
The NANTA President solicited the Commission’s management to assist the association and air travellers in the country to prevent unfair practices in the downstream aviation sector and how best to articulate its stance on the way forward.
In his remarks, the Vice Chairman and CEO of the FCCPC, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, lauded the NANTA’s leadership for confidence in government-structured competition and consumer protection ecosystem, which the commission had been championing in line with its mandate over the years.
He promised that the commission would study the issues raised by the NANTA and act as appropriate, including all stakeholders in the process if considered necessary.
The FCCPC boss said: “We at FCCPC welcome your request for guidance and will do our best to help determine possible steps to solve this problem which affects Nigerians, but will first put up an investigation team to determine what led to this impasse and possibly infractions against the travelling public.”
It would be recalled that NANTA had early this year accused foreign airlines plying the Nigerian routes of deliberately hiking air fares for Nigerians because of their trapped funds estimated at over $500 million.
The association alleged that due to the trapped funds, the airlines closed lower inventories for its members, thereby compelling Nigerian travellers to be buying higher inventories of tickets, and described the practice as unfair to the travellers and its members.
