The Nigerian Senate Committee on
Aviation on Tuesday ordered the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)
to work
with the Nigerian Ministry of Justice and the Economic and Financial
Crimes
Commission (EFCC) in ensuring British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic
(VS) pay fines of $135 million and $100million (i.e N21.87billion and N1.62billion) respectively after
both were found guilty on various counts of price fixing and coercion.
According to press reports, the charges leveled against the British carriers, and on which they were found guilty, were:
- conspiring to fix prices at the expense of Nigeria,
- operating a duopoly
to the detriment of other airlines,
- engaging in the passenger fuel
surcharge scam.
According to the country's aviation authorities, the differences between
fares Nigerians are made to pay on the Lagos-London-Lagos route and
what Ghanaians pay on the Accra-London-Accra route are: US4'239 for
first class, USD1'055 for business class and USD92 for premium economy.
Presenting the report, the Chairman of the committee, Senator
Uzodinma said British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways were found
guilty of the offenses, adding that both airlines were also involved in the
passenger fuel surcharge.
German carrier Lufthansa (LH) was also singled out as owing the NCAA over $14million.
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