In what could be described as a breach of consumer rights, local airlines operators have blocked their inventories against passengers, LEADERSHIP can authoritatively report.
The blockage has stopped passengers from making bookings ahead of their respective traveling for the coming festive seasons, Eid-el-Fitri and Easter.
LEADERSHIP reports that while Muslim will celebrate Eid-el-Fitri, the end of Ramadan fasting on March, 31st, 2025, the Christians will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on 20th, April, 2025.
However, during these two festivals, Nigerians travel from the cities to villages and towns to celebrate with their loved ones, especially travellers in the Northern, South -Southern and Eastern part of the country.
Unfortunately, passengers who want to make early booking for their traveling have been barred as visits to the website of major local carriers such as Air Peace, United Nigeria and Aero Contractors and Arik Air showed that passengers cannot make traveling booking for these two periods.
For instance, passengers have bookings opened till February 28, 2025 on Air Peace; March 30, 2025 on United Nigeria and February 28, 2025, on Aero Contractor.
Also, on Arik Airline, customers have till March 26 while April 30th, 2025 for Max and Rano Air.
So, except for Max and Rano Airlines, Air Passengers cannot book ahead for local travel for the festive season, an act passengers have condemned and have called on the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission Lagos (FCCPC) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to investigate the alleged manipulation.
Also, industry stakeholders have described this as a breach of consumers’ rights and anti- competition, saying government agencies saddled with the responsibility of protecting consumers’ rights should intervene.
According to travel agents, global best practices allow airlines to open their inventories for up to 10 months, to allow passengers to plan their travel.
Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP on the development, the president National Association of Nigerian Travel Agents (NANTA), Yinka Folami, said if Nigeria references global practices, consumers must be allowed to purchase in advance.
According to Folami, global practices allow customers to purchase in advance, saying NANTA will continuously engage in order to have a balance and fair pricing in Nigeria.
“Easter season is coming and the same thing is happening. There is a government body, called FCPCC, that is responsible for the protection of this market and we supported them the last time when they intervened on consumer services in the sector. If we are talking about global practices, let’s embrace it in its entirety.
“Global practices allow you to purchase in advance. Why is that difficult? What’s the issue? Why can’t we get inventory up to April? All the foreign airlines have inventory opened for up to 10 months ahead so as to purchase in advance and the value for purchasing in advance is because it will be cheaper.
“If we reference global practices why can’t we purchase in advance in Nigeria. We must all go for good pricing and hold service to Nigerian consumers. It takes collaborative effort and robust engagement and we can assure you that at NANTA, we will continue to engage, it will be addressed and settled,” he assured.
He continued, “We will continuously engage so that we have a balance and everything we do will be seen from the point of view of the consumer because we are bent on service and fair pricing for Nigerian consumers,” Folami stated.
Also speaking, the immediate past president of NANTA, Susan Akporiaye, said it has been a practice of local Airline operators to release one or two-month bookings for passengers.
Appropriate, who is the managing director of Topaz Travels and Tours, said the practice of the local airline was to arbitrarily increase Air fare.
“This has been the practice by local airlines for all routes. They do not release inventory beyond three months, some release a month or two ahead and this does not allow people to plan their trip ahead in order to enable them to get the best deals.
“Also, this allows them control the market narrative, gives room for the price you increase arbitrarily, gives the airlines control over pricing and take away the power of choice from the consumers,” she argued.
On his part, the general secretary, Aviation Round Table Initiative (ARTI), Olumide Ohunayo, said the plan was to have Easter rush and maximise profitability.
Ohunayo, also stated that capacity deficit may be responsible, saying most airlines may have returned leased aircraft abroad.
“So many factors could have necessitated that, remember that Ibom Air left their inventory open, also, remember that some of the airlines leased aircraft for the Christmas period, so maybe the aircraft are going back and they may have to look at what they have in their fleet and how that can manage their schedules.
“Remember that the NCAA is taking the consumer protection issue seriously and with the online portal, it’s easier for passengers to report, get their refund and also get compensated if need be so all airlines are putting measures in place to reduce incidences and consequences of such incidents.
“Again, we can say the plan was to have Easter rush and maximize profitably from the Easter rush which is in April as passengers will be given only one month to make bookings. It’s a bit difficult when dealing with this. A thorough investigation is needed from the NCAA to highlight whether this issue is an act of anti competition or collusion by the airlines because that can’t be ruled out.
“A thorough investigation will reveal more and it’s important we start the investigation now rather than wait for FCCPC to come in and the industry will get agitated. There is need for an in-house cleansing and soul searching before the FCCPC steps in and it is within the right of the commission to protect consumers,” Ohunayo stated.