Air Peace struggles to explain discriminatory high fares on South East

 

Maureen Aguta

 

The management of Air Peace has refuted claims making the rounds on social media that it is charging high ticket fares and extorting passengers on its Southeast routes.

The airline, in a statement on Monday said that fares across its routes are based on global best practices.

While noting that it is compelled to address the misrepresentation of facts and wrong accusations about its business model making the rounds on social media, Air Peace explained that it fosters and promotes peace and unity amongst different ethnic groups in Nigeria.

According to the airline, it is the handiwork of mischief makers whipping up ethnic sentiments against Air Peace and the Chairman, Dr. Allen Onyema, by insinuating that the airline has continued to favour Northerners at the expense of the Easterners in its ticket pricing.

It called on its customers to disregard the malicious claims on social media, adding that prices of air tickets are generated through an automation process.

The statement partly read: “Lately, we have observed several posts on social media in which the authors are purporting that Air Peace is extorting Easterners with ‘high ticket fares’. Their intention is to whip up ethnic sentiments against Air Peace and the Chairman, Dr. Allen Onyema, by insinuating that the airline has continued to favour Northerners at the expense of the Easterners in its ticket pricing.

“We have also observed baseless comparisons of our fares with those of other airlines without taking into cognisance how airline fare system works and the interplay of market factors that determine pricing at any given time. We also noticed that some of these comparisons are flawed: Juxtaposing a Business Class fare for an Eastern route with an Economy Class fare for a Northern route, and giving the impression that both are Economy Class fares.

“It is common knowledge that Business Class ticket fares are higher than Economy Class fares yet these authors are spreading all these allegations in bad faith.

“The airline fare system is automated and configured in a unique way: As an aircraft seat gets fuller, the higher fares automatically get displayed. This is not just applicable to domestic airline fare system but even the international airline fare system follows the same principle”.

Clarifying further, it stated that the Eastern routes’ increased demand for flight tickets/high passenger traffic this season automatically impact the way the aircraft seats get sold.

Air Peace, therefore, wonders why it is being wrongly accused of extorting Easterner passengers when it is evident that it is not the most expensive airline flying to the East this season.

“The seats get sold out faster than some routes with less traffic. Therefore, the airline booking engine reservation system displays the higher fares faster even though eventually, the higher fares will get displayed on the less traffic routes as the seats get fuller, too”, it added.