NCAA DG, Harold Demuren

By Chinedu Eze

In the next two weeks two British carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic (VAA) would pay to the Federal Government the sum of N37.6 billion ($37.6 billion) if the administrative panel set up to reappraise the investigations of the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren, ratifies his decision.

In October last year the regulatory body ordered the British major carriers to pay the above sum as compensation for Nigerians passengers the airlines had short-changed with exorbitant and outrageous fares over the years.
But the two major airlines had denied any wrong doing and had insisted that they would not pay any penalties.

This prompted NCAA to set up a panel made up of five members to deliberate and consider the legality and fairness of NCAA’s investigation, report and findings “with respect to the investigation into BA and VAA’s collusion, deceptive, unfair and anti-competitive practices especially with respect to the Passenger Fuel Surcharge.”

Demuren told THISDAY that the panel which resumed sitting on Monday after the Yuletide holidays would finish soon and give its verdict and if it upholds the decision earlier reached by the regulatory body, the two airlines would pay the said sum without delay.
“The panel will look at it and then take a decision. If I am wrong they will say that I am wrong, but once I get their report and they say the people are wrong I will tell them to come and pay immediately. I believe that in two weeks you will be hearing from us.”
The Director General alleged that BA and VAA used deception to collect so much money from Nigerian passengers as fares, noting that the fares Nigerians pay are three times what the airlines charge in Ghana.

“There were a lot of surcharge; they will tell you that the ticket price to London from Lagos is only, for example, N800 or N900 but your fuel surcharge is N600. Why? This is so high. What is that surcharge all about? You don’t pay tax on it, but you pay tax on the fare but you don’t pay tax on the surcharge.

“They are all methods to exploit the passengers. In the business and first class that was disaster. The fare you pay in Nigeria is thrice times what you pay in Ghana. All these are wrong.”
He justified the directive given to them earlier to pay the penalty, remarking that in other countries where they charged the passengers in the same way they paid penalty and Nigeria would not be different.

“They committed similar offence in America and they paid fine there; some of them even went to jail. Our market is open for exploration but we must close it for exploitation,” he said.
Demuren recalled why the regulatory body decided to investigate the two airlines and came up with the money they were asked to pay as penalty.

“So when I saw the report I found out that there were violations. According to our law I must make necessary sanctions. That was why I came out with those fines; that they should pay the fines. They looked at it and they said, we disagree with you; we don’t like it and that they were going to take another option. The law said that if you don’t agree you must set up a review panel. I said, okay, fine; we set up a review panel. That panel has started,” he added.