Keyamo slams FCCPC, says statement on Air Peace pricing careless
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo
Abdullateef Fowewe
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has criticised the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for its recent statement questioning Air Peace’s pricing methodology, describing it “careless.”
The controversy arose after Air Peace executives attended a meeting with the FCCPC to discuss allegations of poor service delivery.
Keyamo while speaking in an interview on Sunday, with Arise TV stated that the FCCPC should have consulted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority before making public allegations of price extortion against the airline.
Keyamo expressed concern over the FCCPC’s decision to publicly address the issue without engaging with the NCAA, which holds regulatory authority over airlines in Nigeria.
He said, “I think it was a very careless statement – I say that with all apology – by the agency, making such a statement without consulting the core agency involved in regulation, which is the NCAA. The power to regulate these airlines and for the airlines to inform about their price increase and all of that is domiciled in NCAA; that is the core agency.
“They should have contacted the NCAA for them to look at the books, which we have been doing, so we would have given them facts. But to single out a few airlines that we are struggling to expose to the world for them to get more enhanced capacity, it was a bit careless.”
Keyamo further stressed that the issue at hand was not one of exploitation but rather the airline industry’s capacity limitations, especially regarding aircraft acquisition and servicing routes.
He said, “What we are facing is a problem of capacity of the airlines to acquire aircraft and to service their routes. Again, we have things that are totally out of our control, which is the issue of the fluctuation of the forex, the exchange rate, that affects everything in aviation. Everything in aviation is dollar stressed
Keyamo emphasised that the challenges facing Nigerian airlines stem from capacity limitations and external factors such as fluctuating foreign exchange rates, rather than exploitation. He noted that Nigerian airlines often rely on foreign exchange for aircraft leasing and operational costs, which are heavily influenced by the dollar’s value.
He said, “All of these are foreign exchange, and with the fluctuating nature of our naira against the dollar, you will expect that it will affect also their cost of operation. Now, what we are therefore doing is to ensure that we expose them to the markets across the world where they can now access aircraft on very good terms, and this will impact on the prices of tickets and their cost of operation. That is what led us to addressing the issue of the practice direction pursuant to the Cape Town Convention. That is the core of the problem of the aviation industry that this president and vice president graciously supported us to get to, and we are there now.”
To address these issues, Keyamo announced plans for a January delegation to Dublin to engage with major airline financiers, aiming to secure better aircraft leasing rates that could ultimately lower ticket prices.
“All the major airline financiers, aircraft financiers, and liaisons, are all gathered there (in Dublin), and for the first time, they have invited Nigeria to say, because of what we have done, because of the fact that all these efforts we have made to make them access these markets around the world, has increased our compliance score from 49% to 75.5% for the first time in history, all credit to the policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he added.
Dailyeconomy had earlier reported that FCCPC in a statement issued on Sunday, has warned Air Peace not to obstruct its probe over consumer rights violations.
