Senate Condemns Exorbitant Fares By Local Airline Operators
The Senate has condemned in very strong terms, what it described as outrageous fares being charged by local airline operators for the past few weeks.
Some of those billed to appear before the Senate Committee on Aviation, led by Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, APC, Oyo North, are the Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo; heads of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, among others.
The committee was, subsequently directed to work towards inviting the stakeholders for discussion in the shortest possible time, before the Senate proceeds on its Christmas and end-of-the-year break in two weeks.
Resolutions of the Senate, yesterday, were sequel to a motion by Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, who described the exorbitant hike as unacceptable and called on the Senate to intervene.
In his presentation, Senator Buhari said in the last three months, Nigerians had been complaining about the outrageous air fares being charged by the airlines.
He said: “Based on their complaints, we had an informal interaction with the airline owners and operators demanding explanations.
“But nothing came out of the interaction because it was an informal one. So there is a need for the Senate to intervene by inviting all the stakeholders in the aviation sector with a view to addressing the problem.”
He noted that some of the airlines had raised their Lagos to Abuja fares to as high as N500,000 and N650,000 for just a way ticket.
During a debate on the matter at plenary, some of the lawmakers said they witnessed where some of the airlines charged as high as N500,000 and N650,000 for a way ticket, instead of N150,000 or N250, 000 charged on a normal day.
Before ruling on the motion to invite the aviation stakeholders, President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, aligned with the senators on the need to call the airline operators to order.
He agreed that Nigerian air travellers were being exploited by the airline operators, noting that the situation would have been different if Nigeria Air was in operation.
He said: “Yes. I agree that Nigeria Air would have been sympathetic to Nigerian air travellers with lower fares.”
