FG’s 30 days ultimatum to BA, Virgin Atlantic, on fare disparity stands

The Nigerian Government has said that it would continue to fight and protect Nigerian traveling publics from the exploitation of foreign airlines operating in the country. This is coming on the heels of the 30 days ultimatum it gave to all foreign airlines particularly British Airways and Virgin Atlantic (VAA) to reduce their fares or face ban in Nigeria since on the 5th of March 2012.
Speaking to newsmen during the presentation of the Passengers’ Statement of Rights and Airline Obligations at the NCAA annex in Lagos, Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren stressed that the government has vowed to pursue the case to a logical end.
Dr. Demuren however said that he wondered why Nigerians must be shortchanged by some foreign airlines affirming that Nigeria was one of the most lucrative routes in the world with a very large market. He said “Nigeria will not be short change anymore, we mean business on this and we are going to pursue this to the end. Our market is open to exploration but closed to exploitation. We have about 30 days to do this. All of these are covered in BASA. You know the foreign airlines, they like creating regional imbalance”
“If you look at it critically, you will discover that foreign airlines only sell the high fares in Nigeria and they sell the low ones in Ghana. We must stop this regional imbalance, we must support our own airlines, we can’t allow this exploitation to continue and we are not going to back out on this. We are going to fight it to the end. I am so happy that you are here so that we can work together on this” he added. Dr. Demuren further noted that the Federal Government was bent on supporting Nigerian airlines stressing that if they were not assisted that they would die a natural death