LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT REFUNDS 145 FORMER SUBSCRIBERS OF EGAN HOUSING ESTATE
admin By Oyebola Owolabi
A former Vice Chairman of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), Chief Segun Adewale, has urged the Federal Government to protect travel agencies from going extinct following alleged extortion by airline operators.
NANTA is the Umbrella body of all travel agencies operating in Nigeria.
Adewale, the Chief Executive Officer of Aeroland Travels Limited, pleaded with the government to end the frivolous fines being slammed on Nigerian travel agencies by foreign airlines.
According to him, the government needs to act fast to rescue travel agencies because many have shut down following frivolous fines from airline operators.
Adewale recalled that Turkish Airline recently slammed his firm with about N56 million and $8,000 penalties for alleged breach of regulations.
He said: “As an International Air Transport Association (IATA) licensed travel agency, we can issue tickets originating anywhere in the world from Nigeria.
“But, sometime in 2023, following Nigeria’s dollar policies, some foreign airlines blocked their inventory such that travel agencies could not book in Nigeria, but other African countries still had access to the service. This was the genesis of our crisis with Turkish Airlines. They wanted to sell in dollars but could not tell the government, so they blocked our access to their systems. But because Aeroland Travels has an office in Ghana, we sold tickets from there. But, after about a year, Turkish Airlines came up to say we had no authorization to issue the ticket. It then fined us and deducted N69.49 million from our accounts.
“We kept fighting and the money was reduced to N60 million through an invoice captioned ‘invalid charges’. This action is indirectly killing travel agencies and businesses in Nigeria.”
According to Adewale, his firm petitioned the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and when the NCAA intervened, the airline opted to settle out of court.
He said: “After retrieving our petition from NCAA and the airline’s pledge to refund the money, it stopped responding to all entreaties to reverse the illegal debit. The airline has even gone ahead to block our access to their system.
“I have the court option now and probably also approach the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to end these practice that is killing business.”
Adewale also said the court advised them to go through arbitration and mediation, but while this was ongoing, the airline made another deduction from the firm’s account.
“While the arbitration was on, the airline debited us another N11 million for another alleged penalty, about nine months after we had paid for tickets issued by AeroLand Travels.
“My firm is not the only one involved and the airline’s actions have destroyed many businesses. So I am speaking for others in this business.”
President of NANTA Yinka Folami said the body will intervene by arranging a meeting between the aggrieved firm and the airline, and promised that NANTA would continue to ensure good relationship between member-companies and airlines.
Folami said: “We have intervened and we are optimistic we will find a good solution to the issue. The CEO of Aeroland Travels Limited, Mr. Adewale, feels aggrieved at some fines imposed on his firm by the airline. Luckily, the representative of the airline in Nigeria is also a reconciliatory person.
“Airlines have the right to penalize defaulting firms, but our guiding rules allow us to contest same. There is room for reconciliation and intervention, and we are already intervening. We are optimistic that the impasse will be resolved amicably.”
Meanwhile, efforts to get Turkish Airline in Nigeria to respond were unsuccessful. A top official, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “I couldn’t get feedback from my head office and if you are out of time to publish your article you may do it. However, you may also visit the Turkish Airlines website to check our debit memo/booking regulations.”
