The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has defended airlines over recent promotional fares on tickets, saying such a trend would not affect safety.

The Director-General of the NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, who stated this against the backdrop of recent flash sales advertised by some airlines, which is generating mixed reactions in the industry, stated that the authority has not shirked in its responsibility of economic regulations of airlines.

It would be recalled that Dana Air, one of the foremost indigenous carriers, had introduced a flash fare of N23, 400 for customers travelling from Lagos to Owerri and Enugu.

Daily Trust reports that based on the flash fare, the airline would allocate some of its seats for the customers making early bookings.

Following the introduction of flash sales, some aviation stakeholders had argued that selling flight tickets at ridiculously cheap fares is not a good revenue management principle.

However, an official of Dana Air defended the flash sale, saying there was nothing wrong in “keeping 10/15 seats cheap for those who plan their trips. This is a flash sale and not “actual fare”.

Defending the low airfares, the DG said introducing fares does not amount to cutting corners, reiterating that the authority is on top of its economic regulation roles.

He said, “I believe these airlines have done their proper analyses to reduce those airfares and there are many factors, they only can explain the reasons behind their slashing of airfares.

“Maybe they have excess capacity and instead of leaving that excess capacity to go to waste, they rather make some money out of it, so there are many reasons. Airlines may slash their fares maybe they want to relate to a particular market segment after which they will adjust their fares accordingly.

“Airline finances and economics are interesting subjects and airlines have their reasons for doing that.

Source: Daily Trust