AIR FRANCE FAILS TO COMPLY WITH DIRECTIVE ASKING TO RELEASE LOWER INVENTORY TICKETS

Some foreign airlines, on Thursday, released their lower inventory tickets hitherto not available since the trapped fund saga and the depreciation of the naira, after the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), intervened in the exorbitant airfares charged Nigerian travellers by international carriers.This was disclosed by the acting Director General, NCAA, Capt. Chris Najomo, who said airlines like Lufthansa German Airlines, KLM, Egypt Air, Ethiopian Airlines, British Airways, Royal Air Maroc, RwandAir, and Turkish Airlines had released their low ticket inventory.

However, while Air France, according to him, has failed to comply with the directives, the position of Virgin Atlantic was not mentioned at all.

To bring down the cost of flight tickets to international destinations, the Director General set up a 10-man Committee to look into the high cost of tickets in the country.

The Committee, Najomo said, came on the heels of a two-day high-level meeting held between NCAA and foreign airlines in Nigeria on the urgent need to unblock all low inventory tickets which were hitherto blocked for over 18 months.

He said the 10-man committee chaired by Director of Special Duties NCAA, Mr Horatius Egua, was charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the foreign airlines fully complied with the directives of the government to unblock all low inventory tickets as well as recommend appropriate pricing of tickets in Nigeria compared to similar markets in the West African sub-region.