The Minister for Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission have expressed different views over an ongoing investigation against Air Peace by the FCCPC.
While the minister described as careless, the FCCPC’s statement on consumer complaints bordering on alleged exploitation and customer rights violations by the airline, the agency insisted that it was working within its mandates.
The agency recently announced that it was investigating widespread consumer complaints bordering on alleged exploitation and customer rights violations in the banking, telecommunications, and Air peace, from the aviation sector.
While acknowledging the support of President Bola Tinubu at a press conference in Lagos recently, the Chief Operating Officer of the airline, Toyin Olajide, told newsmen that the FCCPC was being used by some entities against the airline.
Reacting to the development during an interview on ARISE TV on Sunday, Keyamo noted that it was careless for the FCCPC to have made such an allegation without contacting the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, the aviation regulatory authority.
He said, “I think it was a very careless statement by that agency and I say that with all apologies, for making that statement without consulting the core agency involved in regulation of the aviation industry, the NCAA. The powers to regulate and for the airlines to inform about their pricing and all is domiciled in the NCAA.
“I don’t think there should be an agency of government whose powers should be everywhere such that if the price of yam goes up, they will go call the agriculture minister and all, I don’t think their powers should be stretched that far. And I say that with an apology because I am also a minister of government.
“They should have consulted the NCAA for them to look at the figures and the books and they would have given them facts, but for them to have singled out a few airlines that we are struggling to expose to the world for them to have more financing for some access, is a bit careless.”
When contacted for a response, the Director of Corporate Affairs at the FCCPC, Ondaje Ijagwu, forwarded a statement to our correspondent cautioning the airline to desist from obstructing their commission’s inquiry.
FCCPC in the statement said it noticed with consternation, the latest “outburst by Air Peace in what seems a series of ploys calculated to both obfuscate the issues and distract the commission from the ongoing inquiry into alleged exploitative ticket pricing among other potential violations of consumers’ rights.”
It added, “Although Section 33 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 grants the commission discretionary power to conduct inquiries in public or in camera, the FCCPC chose to conduct the December 3 session in camera as a gesture of good faith to preserve confidentiality.”
On the need to contact the NCAA, the agency said, “For instance, in asserting that only the aviation regulatory agency could inquire into its affairs, Air Peace only betrays a terribly poor understanding of both the legal and moral pillars of its operating environment. Passengers are consumers of its services. Their rights are inalienable and guaranteed under the FCCPA. It is the basis of FCCPC’s intervention.
“As stipulated in Section 17(e) of the FCCPA 2018, the FCCPC is mandated to carry out inquiries considered necessary or desirable in connection with any matter falling within the purview of the Act.
“Furthermore, Section 127(1)(a) empowers the FCCPC to ensure that pricing practices across all sectors, including aviation, are fair, competitive, and non-exploitative. Specifically, it states that no undertaking shall offer to supply, supply, or enter into an agreement to supply goods or services at a price or on terms that are manifestly unfair, unreasonable, or unjust.”
