The Federal Government has concluded plans to file a class action suit against two United Kingdom mega carriers, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways, for allegedly engaging in price-fixing on the Nigeria-UK route.A class action suit is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court or in which a class of defendants is being sued. A new investigative report by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority had alleged that BA and VAA engaged in price-fixing on the Nigerian route between 2004 and 2006.Following the report, the Federal Government had asked BA to pay $135m and VAA, $100m as compensation to the country and Nigerian travellers, who were allegedly cheated on fuel surcharges. A top official of the Ministry of Aviation, who spoke with our correspondent on Thursday under condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said the government had decided to pursue the matter to a logical conclusion.The officials said the class action was governments next line of action as such was needed to compel BA and VAA to pay the fine.The source said, "The ministry is perfecting some technicalities on the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authoritys report. We are working on the papers. The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation will be filing a class action suit on behalf of Nigerians against the BA and VAA very soon. "Government has decided that there is no going back on the matter. The government knows they will not agree to pay just like that."The source explained that the government was going to court because there were similar court actions against both airlines in the UK and the United States, where they had agreed to pay compensation to passengers.The officials also disclosed that one of the carriers had commenced lobbying the government to waive the fine.He, however, said that government had insisted that there was not going back."Some of the powerful people backing one of the carriers have started begging, but the government has decided that there is no going back," the source said. Meanwhile, the two airlines have denied the allegation of price-fixing and the $235m fine, insisting that their fares on the Nigerian route were competitive.The BA said in a statement, "We reject the allegations made by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and we are vigorously defending our position. We remain committed to Nigeria and have been flying there for more than 75 years. "We pride ourselves on offering competitive fares, a choice of products and connections to our Nigerian customers."Virgin Atlantic also denied the allegation with its representative in the country, Chief John Adebanjo, saying, "I dont think we have violated Nigerian law in any way. We hold the Director-General of NCAA and the agency in high esteem. We respect the laws of the land. A full response will be coming from our head office later."Meanwhile, the NCAA DG, Dr. Harold Demuren, said on Thursday that Nigerias aviation market was "open to exploration but closed to exploitation."Demuren, who spoke at the inaugural flight of United Airlines, a US carrier, which flew from Houston to Lagos, said the government would no longer tolerate "unfair, deceptive, discriminatory and abuse of dominant positions by foreign airlines."He used the opportunity to explain that the NCAA report, which accused BA and VAA of price-fixing on the Nigerian route, had nothing to do with the Bilateral Air Services Agreement controversy between the UK and Nigeria.He said, "We started the BA and Virgin Atlantic investigation six months ago. So, it has nothing to do with the BASA issue between Nigeria, BA and the UK. What we are saying is that our market is open for exploration but closed to exploitation. "We will no longer tolerate exploitation, deceptive and discriminatory practices that cause regional imbalance in fares.
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