Air Peace has given reasons for the high cost of flight tickets to the South Eastern Nigerian destinations.
The explanation follows public outcry on the sudden exorbitant hike with the allegation that it was extorting South-Eastern travellers known to always travel back to their hometowns for the Christmas festivity.
In a statement issued on Monday the airline stated that the reason for the increase in prices of tickets to the destinations was as a result of the increased demand and high passenger traffic.
The airline stated that it had seen multiple social media posts from people who claimed that Air Peace was using “high ticket fares” to extract money from Easterners.
The airline said that by insinuating that Air Peace has been pricing tickets in a way that benefits Northerners over Easterners, the customers were trying to foment ethnic hostilities against the airline and its chairman, Allen Onyema.
Statement by Air Peace read, “It has become abundantly crucial to not only educate the originators of these posts but to also debunk their ill-intentioned, ethnically slanted commentaries as they portray our chairman and Air Peace as ‘profiteerists’. It must be stressed that Air Peace does not and will never discriminate against the South-East or any geo-political zone for that matter.
“This is not just applicable to domestic airline fare systems, even the international airline fare system follows the same principle.
“The Eastern routes’ increased demand for flight tickets/high passenger traffic this season automatically impacts the way the aircraft seats get sold. The seats get sold out faster than some routes with less traffic. Therefore, the airline booking engine reservation system displays the higher fares faster even though eventually, the higher fares will get displayed on the less traffic routes as the seats get fuller too.”
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