Sophia Michaels
The management of Nigerian airline, Air Peace has explained the reason for a hike in the price of flight tickets to South-Eastern states during the Yelutide season.
The carrier’s clarification comes amid allegation that it was extorting South-Eastern travelers known to always travel back to their hometowns for the Christmas festivity.
The allegations had sparked social media attacks against the airline, with users blaming the carrier and other airlines of exploiting passengers by charging exorbitant costs.
In a statement on Monday, the airline explained that the reason for the increase in prices of tickets to South-Eastern states was as a result of the increased demand for flight tickets and high passenger traffic to the region.
The airline stated that it had seen multiple social media posts from people who claimed that Air Peace was using “high ticket fares” to extract money from Easterners.
The airline said that by insinuating that Air Peace has been pricing tickets in a way that benefits Northerners over Easterners, the claims makers were trying to foment ethnic hostilities against the airline and its chairman, Allen Onyema.
Statement by Air Peace read, “It has become abundantly crucial to not only educate the originators of these posts but to also debunk their ill-intentioned, ethnically slanted commentaries as they portray our chairman and Air Peace as ‘profiteerists’. It must be stressed that Air Peace does not and will never discriminate against the South-East or any geo-political zone for that matter.
“This is not just applicable to domestic airline fare systems, even the international airline fare system follows the same principle.
“The Eastern routes’ increased demand for flight tickets/high passenger traffic this season automatically impacts the way the aircraft seats get sold. 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.”
