Cross border trading of foreign airlines inventories, which has impacted negatively on Nigeria travel economy, has been described as a monster that must be tackled frontally and destroyed.
Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi, Acting Vice Chairman, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), stated that the trend is an economic threat to the Nigerian economy, which must be checked before it negatively compounds the plight of the travelling public and livelihood of Nigerian travel trade professionals.
He added that the scenario could also lead to loss of jobs and frustrating efforts to stop capital flights out of Nigeria if urgent action it is not taken.
The FCCPC boss, who spoke in Abuja on Wednesday during a courtesy visit by the President and Executive Council of National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) to his office, assured members of the organised travel trade group that the Federal Government Consumer Protection Commission will tackle the monster headlong and restore sanity in the seemingly dysfunctional aviation industry.
“We shall be very thorough in this engagement and other noticeable infractions in the aviation sector, particularly about airline operators treating passengers as if they don’t matter.
“It is sad to just cancel or delay flights without carrying passengers along, and if you must cancel flights or cause it to be delayed beyond reasonable time, such operator must show us evidence of operational difficulties,” he explained.
Alhaji Abdullahi commended the leadership of NANTA for the foresight to engage and partner with FCCPC to enthrone equity and fair play in the Nigerian travel economy, noting that a technical committee would be set up by the Commission to work out terms of memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NANTA to help sustain the relationship.
“NANTA has shown capacity and technical know-how on the best way to organise and manage the travel trade market, and we at FCCPC can only encourage this patriotic zeal by being partners to sustain a credible and efficient business climate sensitive to global expectations and extant regulations in the industry.
“We cannot understand why foreign airlines would leave the airport vicinity and open trade offices in city centres, undermining the operations of registered travel trade professionals. These are issues before us, and we will approach them through detailed investigations and dialogues where necessary.”
Earlier, President of NANTA, Mr Yinka Folami, disclosed that the purpose of the visit is to appreciate the management assistance at stabilising the troubled Nigerian travel sector, particularly during the foreign airlines’ trapped funds saga, which created untold hardship on Nigerian travelling public and the travel agents, causing a dip to about 40 percent loss in the Nigerian travel market.
“We are worried about the dip in the market values of our business, particularly the encroachment of global point of sale fares by merchants that can be fished out and punished as their unwholesome activities have led to capital flight out of the country, exposed Nigerian consumers, trade professionals, and even foreign airlines operating in Nigeria to huge loses.” Mr Folami added that NANTA is worried that such unfair trade practices could complicate the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in Nigeria, factoring jobs losses and impacting on GDP of the country.
“FCCPC has shown commitment and capacity to help clean the cobwebs in the industry and also to help strengthen NANTA as a veritable body to help the government and Nigerians to protect our borders from external and internal obnoxious trade practices” he stated.
At the meeting representing NANTA was; the Immediate Past President (IPP), Mrs. Susan Akporiaye, who reassured that NANTA is ready for this patriotic task, a full representation of the NANTA Executive Council, and Mr. Bolu Agbaje, partner in Pinheiro LP who are Legal Advisers to NANTA on the path to true consumerism in the Nigeria travel space.
