FG sets up committee on ticket pricing
The minister of state for transportation, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, announced in Abuja that a committee on ticket pricing for international air travels had been set up.
The minister told newsmen that the committee would check the differential in the cost of air travels on international routes against what obtained locally.
The six-man committee with members drawn from the private sector, the NCAA and representatives of foreign airlines, is headed by Capt. Shehu Iyal, the Special Assistant to the President on Aviation.
``The fact that Nigerians are frequent fliers and love to travel around the world because of our exposure should not be exploited by the foreign airline operators.
``The fact that Nigerians would continue to travel no matter the cost should not be seen as an avenue for over-pricing the fares,'' the minister said.
Fani-Kayode decried the manner in which Nigerian passengers on foreign airlines were being treated without courtesy, and loss of the luggage of passengers during the Christmas season.
``We insist on 99 per cent if not 100 per cent courtesy to Nigerian passengers. We take exception to racist comments and insist on our people being treated as humans.
``There are reports that foreign passengers are treated more courteously than Nigerian passengers, like the issue of the Nigerian deportee who died on board a KLM flight from the dehumanising way he was treated,'' he said.
Similarly, the minister today gave assurance to pensioners of the defunct Nigerian Airways that he would do everything within the ambits of the law to enable them get their benefits as soon as possible.
Fani-Kayode made the pledge when some of the pensioners paid him a courtesy visit in his office.
Dr Abel Afolayan, first National Vice President of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, who led the delegation expressed delight at the promise.
``Your words are like a balm soothing progressively and awakening dying souls,'' he said.
He said the pensioners were last paid in March 2005, noting that the pensioners were the crop of professionals who made Nigeria Airways the pride of Africa.
``Pension benefits are a right not a privilege, and we believe that with the same action in which you are restructuring this sector, you will help ensure the speedy payments of these benefits,'' Afolayan said.