‘No discrimination’– Air Peace denies charging higher airfares for south-east routes

Air Peace says it has structured airfares for all routes in the country, denying allegations of high ticket pricing to the south-east.

In a viral video, a Nigerian had alleged that the fares offered by the airline to the north were cheaper than what it offers to the south-east.

But reacting in a statement on Sunday, the airline said it does not have a different price regime for different parts of the country.

The airline said ticket prices are determined by the demand.

Explaining further, Air Peace said its fares start from N23,000 and progresses to N60,000, the highest economy class fare.

It noted that for a 136- seat capacity aircraft (12 Busi­ness and 124 Economy), the fare is allocated thus: N23,000 – 10 seats; N27,500 – 20 seats; N30,000 – 25 seats; N33,000- 15 seats, N35,000 – 15 seats; N42,000 – 10 seats; N47,000- 5 seats; N50,000 – 5 seats, N55,000 – 5 seats and N60,000 – 14 seats.

Air Peace said that these fares are loaded into the system for its entire destinations: north, east, south, and west.

“Air Peace does not discriminate against the South East. It is the same fare that is loaded for all the routes all over Nigeria,” the statement reads.

‘’These fares are loaded into the system for all Air Peace destinations- North, East, South and West. No discrimination. If the first 10 seats of N23,000 fare finishes, the system will automatically start showing the next fare which is N27,500. If the allocated seats on this are booked, it will migrate to the next until it gets to the last 14 seats pegged at N60,000.

‘’As the aircraft gets fuller, the higher fares start showing up. The Eastern routes, because of traffic, get sold out faster than some places thereby showing higher fares faster. But the other destinations, though slower, will also pay the same higher fares as they get fuller too.”

Air Peace’s management said that it is mischievous of anyone to accuse Allen Onyema, its chairman, and the airline of ethnic favouritism, decrying that it had become habitual for a section of people to try to make themselves popular by attacking the airline.

‘’To feather their parochial interests, these propagandists say we favour the North. They published on social media a fare of N95,000 to Owerri and a fare of Kano showing N35,000 for the same date. Quite misleading,” the statement adds.

‘’The N95,000 fare is not our Economy fare but our Business fare. It is deceptive for anyone to deliberately bring out our highest Business fare for Owerri and juxtapose it against a Kano Economy fare selling at the time, thereby making the unsuspecting reader to think that the Owerri passenger is paying N95,000 for the same class of ticket which the Kano person was paying N35,000 for.

‘’Our fares are the cheapest in Nigeria for our type of aircraft. Even in Christmas season, we do not increase fares. The N60,000 Economy ticket is there all year. During Christmas, you fly empty planes back to Lagos from the South East, yet we keep to our all-year-round Economy fare of N60,000.

‘’Air Peace came on board when there was the paucity of flights in the South East and provided several flights, making transportation easier for the Easterners.

“The airline also has in its employ over 2000 Igbo people in an industry where they were not adequately represented before our entry.”

Air Peace recently announced that it would commence flight operations into the Anambra international cargo and passenger airport on Tuesday, December 7, 2021.