Air Peace Airline and United Nigeria Airline have debunked allegations of arbitrary discriminate air fare charges for flights plying the South East routes.
A traveler had alleged that Kano Air Peace Airline flight users are paying N33,000 while Owerri passengers are paying N95,000 for the same airline.
Responding to News.band enquiries into the allegations of arbitrary airfares levelled against the airlines, both Air Peace and United Nigeria said the allegation is far from the truth.
United Nigeria Airlines stated: “These prices are not from us! Our prices are not close to those and I don’t think any airline charges anything close.
“I wish they were. This is just social media fake news, which we don’t normally respond to.
“We however always advise our customers to go to our website to check our fares which are public.
“Fares are based on the day of travel: the earlier you buy the cheaper for you.
“Some go through agents to buy their tickets and these agents mark them up and issue fake receipts.
“We cannot be held responsible.
“Moreover, airports in the East, e.g. ABB, ENU and QOW suffer chronic shortage of fuel which force airlines to tanker up and carry fewer passengers.
“Fuel prices are also expensive in these airports. The solution is to buy early and from official sources.
“I can assure you that we subsidize many flights in order to keep our passengers happy. Thanks for sharing.”
On his part, Chief Allen Onyema, chairman of Air Peace Airlines, responding on behalf of his company, said:
“We do not discriminate against South East. It is the same fare. They are advertising their ignorance.
“It has become a pastime for my fellow brothers to attack me and Air Peace.
“We do not discriminate against South East. It is the same fare that is loaded for all the routes all over Nigeria.
“Our fares start from N23,000. It progresses from there to N60,000 which is our highest economy class fare. For an aircraft that carries 136 passengers(12 business class and 124 economy) the fare is allocated as follows: N23,000 – 10seats; N27,500 – 20 seats; N30,000 – 25seats; N33,000- 15seats, N35,000 – 15seats; N42,000 – 10 seats; N47,000- 5seats; N50,000 – 5seats, N55,000 – 5seats and N60,000 – 14seats.
“The above fares are loaded in the system for all the destinations- North, East, South and West. No discrimination. If the first 10 seats of N23,000 fare finishes, the system will automatically start showing the next fare which is N27,500. If the allocated seats on this finishes, it will migrate to the next until it gets to the last 14 seats which is N60,000.
“So what happens is that as it is getting fuller, the higher fares would be showing up. Now, the Eastern routes, because of traffic, gets sold out faster than some places thereby showing higher fares faster but the other destinations, though slower, will also pay the same higher fares as they get fuller too.
“It is highly mischievous of anyone to be accusing me and Air Peace of discrimination. It has become a pastime for people to try to make themselves popular by attacking me. They will never get that popularity but will surely reap notoriety for their deliberate falsehood.
“The fare you showed me here of N95,000 is not our economy fare but our business class fare. It is very mischievous for anyone to deliberately bring out our highest business class fare for Owerri and juxtapose it against a Kano economy class fare selling at that time, thereby making the unsuspecting reader to think that the Owerri passenger is paying N95,000 for the same class of ticket the Kano person was paying N33,000 for. This is wickedness. Why are we Ibos this way?
“Our fares are the cheapest in Nigeria for our type of aircraft.
“I believe some of these people are paid to erroneously believe that they can run us down. I populate flights to the south east and we get get in return is this devilish envy and unbridled jealousy.
“Our fares are the cheapest in Nigeria for our type of aircraft,” he added.
