Nigeria Hands Out Fines to BA and Virgin
A fine has been handed to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic by the Nigerian government for what it claims to be unfair trade practices affecting airfare prices.
An official told the Associated Press that the fines of $135 million to BA and $100 million to Virgin were the result of an alleged collusion between the airlines to hike the prices of travel between London and Lagos since 2004. In the wake of recent conflict over Nigerian airline Arik Air's slot availability at Heathrow, the official denied that the fines were a response to disagreements regarding the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA).
Joe Obi, Special Assistant to Stella Oduah, Nigeria's Minister of Aviation, explained that the government “considered this as insufficient. The Nigerian government is still very concerned about the regional price disparity. We still strongly believe that this regional imbalance should be dismantled. In other words, BA should offer the same or similar fares from Nigeria to the UK as is the case in any other equidistant destination within West Africa.”
Mr Obi also explained that BA and Virgin Atlantic would have to compensate affected passengers - another blow to the already sizeable fines being imposed.
While BA is yet to publicly respond to the fine, Virgin Atlantic has released a statement to say that it had "received correspondence from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority relating to an inquiry surrounding historic passenger fuel surcharges." The statement explained that the airline did not believe its practices had breached any Nigerian law, also saying it "will be robustly defending any suggestion to the contrary."
Travel Industry news posted by Jan Moys on 18 November 2011
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