NUATE defends sacked workers, says system flaw caused Turkish Airlines’ $600k loss

The National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) has denied the $600,000 ticket racketeering allegation made by Turkish Airlines against seven former workers.

In a statement on Monday, Ocheme Aba, NUATE’s general secretary, said the airline’s claim of a $600,000 ticket racketeering was misleading.

On May 22, Turkish Airlines said it sacked seven Nigerian workers because they violated various ticketing reservation rules costing the airline significant economic loss.

Turkish Airlines spoke after the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on May 20, directed its members to picket the airline in Lagos state for sacking the workers.

The protest was said to have stalled flight operations that were to take place on May 21 and left 300 passengers stranded.

Reacting to the event, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on May 22 threatened to impose severe penalties on Turkish Airlines for its alleged mistreatment of Nigerian passengers.

Addressing the allegation, Aba said the claim is a mere phantom.

“What happened is that sometime in April 2023, Turkish Airlines’ headquarters issued a sales restriction circular which allowed sales of only two premium classes of tickets as a response to foreign airlines’ difficulty in repatriating their proceeds to home countries due to foreign exchange constraints in Nigeria,” he said.

“But in a contradicting manner the airline had an advertised fare on the website which was much lower than the permitted fares.

“Therefore, intending passengers who accessed such fare, but could not pay online were directed by the global call center to approach the Nigerian offices.

“As the workers could not attend to the customers due to the sales restriction, the passengers resorted to creating ugly scenes at the sales offices which became riotous at times.”

The general secretary said the sales staff, following the instructions of the then sales manager, processed tickets using the passenger name records (PNR) provided online by customers, in accordance with the airline’s booking system.

Aba said all ticket sales were accurately documented and the airline’s accountants received all the payments owed.

He said no funds belonging to Turkish Airlines were missing, and no staff members gained financially from the alleged internet sales.

Aba criticised Turkish Airlines for blaming its workers for not adhering to sales restrictions, attributing the problem to flaws in the airline’s information and communication technologies (ICT) system and other factors.

On May 24, Turkish Airlines announced it would resume flight operations to Nigeria on May 25 after consultations with aviation agencies.