FAAN vs BA Latest: NCAA Accuses British Airways Of Undermining Constituted Authority!
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, yesterday, accused British Airways, BA, of undermining constituted authority in the country, even as it said it would be waiting for the airline to prove its innocence in court over allegations of price fixing and unfair fare regime slammed on Nigerian travellers on the London route.
Director-General of the agency, Dr. Harold Demuren, said in a statement in Lagos that the agency was conscious of its regulatory role in the industry, and took a balanced and objective posture to ensure that the rights of investigated airlines were respected as well as the interest of Nigerian passengers. British Airways had, this weekend, sent the regulatory agency a pre-action notice, notifying it of its intentions to go to court to clear itself of the price fixing allegation.
Demuren said: “It is noteworthy that as has been characteristic of British Airways, their letter needlessly confronts NCAA, stating that it has acted “unlawfully” outside of its powers, without legal basis and usurped the Judiciary. “While entirely false, these inflammatory statements are needless and do not add anything to any legal points BA seeks to make. The only possible objective of such a confrontational approach is to condescend to and undermine the regulator.
Disregard for Nigerian authority
“It, again, demonstrates the repeated and continuing disregard BA has for Nigerian constituted authority and its exclusive desire to ensure that absolutely nothing interferes with its ability to continue to take advantage of our business without the reciprocal regard and deference required.
“This kind of acrimonious approach to communication and interaction with the regulator neither promotes nor conveys the type of mutual respect required for a mutually beneficial resolution of differences between the Federal Government and British Airways.“ He said the NCAA was not in existence in 2004 and, as such, had no legal basis to investigate conduct that arose before its creation, adding that although the NCAA respected the airlines’ entitlement to disagree with its findings, he, however, remained confident that the NCAA, both in its process and in content, had acted appropriately within the confines of law.
NCAA complies with legal requirements
Demuren insisted that NCAA complied with all legal requirements for fairness during the investigations, adding that its investigation “meets the constitutional standard required of such investigative hearings under Section 36(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which provides that the administering authority provides the person affected by its decision an opportunity to make representations before the decision is made.
He said: “In the circumstances, there is no procedural unfairness in the investigative process.” He assured the Nigerian travelling public that any enforcement action will be entirely consistent with the letter of the law while being both robust and effective, stressing that the policy of protecting Nigeria and Nigerians would be demonstrated in every step NCAA took over the issue.
NCAA ready for BA in court
Demuren, who had earlier confirmed the agency’s receipt of a pre-action notice from BA to Vanguard on telephone last night, laughed off the airline’s decision to go to court, saying the agency’s lawyers were battle ready with facts. According to him, BA is just grand-standing as it does not have facts to wriggle its way out of the allegation in court.
He said: “I will say they have zero confidence of winning in court; we are ready for them. They have written us a letter, an appeal procedure, which is normal, but we are ready with facts, all our facts are there, our lawyers are ready.” Asked if he was not disappointed by the airline’s defiant stance on the issue, Demuren said he was not the least surprised, saying “it shows you the kind of people they are, but we will not shy away from our responsibility to our people.
“They think we don’t have courts here, let them go to court. They were charged by the US government for unfair practices and they paid; therefore, they must pay here because the situations are the same.”
Report indicts BA, Virgin Atlantic
A report from an investigation conducted by the NCAA, covering a period of six months, had indicted British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways of fleecing Nigerians through unfair pricing of their tickets, and slammed a $235 million fine on both airlines.
The report stated partly: “After a long painstaking, thorough and comprehensive investigation spanning approximately half a year of some conduct by British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic Airways (VAA), the NCAA has concluded that both airlines violated Nigerian law, exploited Nigerian consumers and have remained adamant about whether those consumers should be compensated even when confronted with the fact that they are already compensating similar consumers in Britain, their home country and the United States.
“This investigation over a period of six months gathered information from other authorities, different courts in the United States and Canada, BA, VAA, travel agents, NCAA database and other sources, interviewed over a dozen witnesses including officials of both airlines and their service providers.
“After reviewing over well over 10,000 pages of documents, over 650 pages of transcribed witness testimonies and representations made by and on behalf of BA and VAA, the NCAA concludes that BA and VAA have engaged in unfair and deceptive practices against Nigerian consumers, the downstream aviation sector in Nigeria and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Unfair methods of competition
“In addition, both airlines engaged in unfair methods of competition. Starting sometime in 2004 and continuing to 2006, BA and VAA colluded and started a conspiracy to fix, periodically increase and maintain Passenger Fuel Surcharges (PFS) as a component of the fare passengers pay to travel.
“This collusion and conspiracy was ultimately discovered and became the subject of investigation in the U.S. and U.K and several class actions to protect consumers. BA has since pledged guilty to the criminal conduct in the U.S and paid a criminal penalty of $300 million and a fine of £121 million in he UK based on investigations by the United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) and UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
“In addition, both airlines have settled consumers in the US and UK approximately $204 million in compensation of the anti-competitive method of setting and conspiring to increase the PFS. “Pursuant to statutory authority, the NCAA commenced its own investigation and discovered that BA and VAA did in fact collude and in furtherance of that collusion periodically increased PFS including against Nigerians. “BA and VAA operate approximately 90 per cent of the direct flights between Nigeria and the UK.”
Being a duopoly, the effect of this collusion was and continues to be devastating on Nigerian travellers who have limited choices and have had to and continue to pay indiscriminately high fares. “The increases in PFS had no linear correlation with the changing price of crude oil or the cost at which BA and VAA were buying Jet A-1 fuel in Nigeria.”
Source: Vanguard News
keep it up!
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