Excerpts from The Guardian>> https://guardian.ng/news/ex-fccpc-boss-aviation-stakeholders-disagree-on-price-fixing-claims/
Former Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Babatunde Irukera, has called on domestic airlines to respond substantively to the commission’s observations on fair pricing, rather than dismissing its competence.
Irukera, who led the commission for nearly seven years, said the FCCPC’s findings on airfare during peak travel periods, especially during the last Yuletide, were based on rigorous data analysis and not conjecture.
He explained that the investigators would have examined fare patterns on specific domestic routes during the last holidays and compared them with post-holiday pricing on the same routes.
According to him, the review also addressed government-imposed charges within the same period, Jet A1 costs, foreign exchange fluctuations and load factors, among others.
He said, “Of course, FCCPC is not ignorant or lacking in knowledge. Data don’t lie. The numbers are what they are.
“It’s actually disingenuous and intellectually lazy to just flippantly say the agency is ignorant or lacks expertise without being able to identify the specific areas of investigative failures or improbable conclusions.”
But the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of United Nigeria Airlines (UNA), Osita Okonkwo, challenged FCCPC to conduct more research on airline economics before concluding on the price-fixing allegation.
Okonkwo also noted that during the Yuletide, most airlines return empty on return legs, among other industry challenges.
Also, an aviation analyst, Gbenga Onitilo, mentioned Jet A1 price volatility, foreign exchange pressures, dollar-denominated aircraft leases, overseas maintenance (MRO), insurance premiums, airport and navigational charges, inflationary pressures and financing costs as some of the challenges affecting Nigerian domestic airlines.
The former Rector of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Samuel Caulcrick, cautioned against questioning the commission’s expertise.
He posited that the FCCPC included officials with aviation regulatory backgrounds and urged airlines to defend their positions with evidence, rather than outright condemnation.
