The Executive Vice Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Dr. Tunji Bello, has disclosed that the five (5) airlines indicted for fixing prices during the last Christmas/ New Year holidays may be asked to refund the excess charge to the customers.
Dr. Bello, who disclosed this at the State House Meet the Press Session on Thursday in Abuja, stated that the final report would be ready very soon.
He said “with its preliminary investigations concluded, the FCCPC is set to sanction about 5 airlines guilty of colluding to fix prices during the last Christmas/ New Year holidays.
“These airlines may be asked to refund excess to the customers. Prices went up as far as 405k and 600k.”
The findings of the forensic investigations released by the Commission recently shows that fares recorded during the December peak were materially higher than those observed in the post-peak period across several routes despite relative stability in critical operating variables like fuel price, government taxes and foreign exchange.
The report said the differences observed in fares therefore appear to reflect airlines’ arbitrary pricing decisions, including yield management and capacity allocation, rather than any variation in regulatory fees.
Route-level analysis, according to the report, shows that higher fares coincided with periods of reduced seat availability during predictable seasonal demand peaks.
On some high-density routes, peak fares were clustered within relatively narrow ranges across several operators.
“For instance, on certain corridors like Abuja-Port Harcourt, peak fares were several times higher than corresponding post-peak levels.
“On selected routes, the difference in the price of a single ticket reached approximately ₦405,000. Median fares across the sampled routes also rose markedly during the festive window when compared with post-peak benchmarks,” the report noted.
However, FCCPC said the interim report recognises that seasonal demand pressures, scheduling constraints and fleet utilisation may also affect pricing during peak travel periods.
These factors, the Commission said remain under consideration as part of the ongoing review.
