The airline’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Toyin Olajide, who made these remarks on Friday, maintained that there was nothing exploitative about Air Peace’s airfares.
By Emma Ogbuehi
Leading Nigerian airliner, Air Peace, has debunked allegations of exploitative airfares levelled against it by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). It also faulted the decision of FCCPC to launch an inquisition into its pricing, and described the move as unfair.
The airline’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Toyin Olajide, who made these remarks on Friday, maintained that there was nothing exploitative about Air Peace’s airfares, stressing that the allegation had negatively affected the organisation’s business and image outside the country. She added that Air Peace has written to President Bola Tinubu and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment on the matter.
Olajide’s remarks came on the heels of reports that FCCPC had launched an inquiry into widespread consumer complaints against Air Peace on issues of poor service delivery, exploitative practices and potential consumer rights violations.
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She expressed surprise that after a meeting between FCCPC and Air Peace in Abuja over the matter which had ended on a cordial note, another report emerged that the agency was indeed investigating Air Peace.
Olajide argued that rather than the FCCPC going public in accusing the company of exploitative practices, the agency should have liaised with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the aviation sector regulator.
While denying charges of exploitation against the airline, Olajide disclosed that many factors are taken into consideration before arriving at fares for an average one-hour flight in the country.
She stressed that the airfares Nigerian airlines charged were not commensurate with the cost of operations, wondering what parameters were used to arrive at the allegations against her company.
She said; “Before you say that an airline is exploiting someone, how much information do you have about airline operation? What exactly defines the ticket cost? How do you even come about the cost of a ticket? It is the operating cost of that flight.
“What are the factors that define operating costs? You start talking about fuel, which we all know contributes almost 60 to 65 per cent of your operating costs. Today in Nigeria, we are buying one litre of fuel at almost N1400, I mean, N1,400 per litre. If I have to operate a one-hour flight from here to Abuja, from here to Owerri or Port Harcourt, I will need about 4,000 litres of fuel.
“That will cost almost N7 million. There is also the cost of funding, because we know that aviation is a high capital industry. This is a very sensitive sector. This is a sector that I tell people, you carry human blood on your shoulders.
“You cannot afford to take anything for granted. You cannot manage nothing because there is no bus stop in the air. It simply means you have got to do everything humanly possible, follow the regulations, the safety requirements, the protocols, every single requirement for a safe flight.
“They keep saying airlines are dying. Why would they not die? It is really unfair that Air Peace is being accused of exploitative fares. What parameters were being used to arrive at this word, exploitative?”
“We are fully aware of the enquiry by the FCCPC about exploitative fares. A lot of people might not know the implications of just that alone. You are talking about investigating the biggest airline in your country that has bent backwards 360 degrees for this country, that is representing this country out there, that is putting this country on the global map, making Nigeria proud.
Olajide recalled that Air Peace had since its inception in 2014, been in the forefront of supporting Nigeria at critical times, listing the free flight services offered to Nigerians during the xenophobic attacks in Saudi Arabia and Covid-19 pandemic, and the crisis in Sudan.
She added that the airline had been able to free the country from the shackles of exploitative airfares by foreign airlines through its international, maintaining that with such patriotic dispositions, it would never engage in sharp practices against Nigerians.
