AirAsia Move fined P6M for pricey tickets
(Third and fourth from left) Paul Carroll, group chief commercial officer of AirAsia and Dabraj Sing, chief business officer of AirAsia MOVE officiate their lowest AirAsia fares campaign, May 20, 2024. (Photo from AirAsia)
MANILA, Philippines — The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) imposed a P6-million fine against online travel agent platform AirAsia Move. This was for the allegedly selling tickets priced unreasonably high, according to the Department of Transportation (DOTr).
In a statement on Friday, the DOTr said the penalty had sent a “clear message: the government will not tolerate any form of abuse to Filipino passengers.”
READ: AirAsia Move fine-tuning app amid ticket pricing probe
The transportation department, earlier this month, flagged AirAsia Move after receiving a complaint from Leyte Rep. Richard Gomez and Ormoc Mayor Lucy Torres-Gomez. The couple bought Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights from Tacloban to Manila via the app.
The two one-way tickets cost them about P77,704. Had they booked directly on the PAL website, they would have been charged only P49,507 in total, the DOTr said.
READ: DOTr to sue online travel app for overpriced tickets
AirAsia Move attributed this to “temporary data synchronization issues with flight pricing partners,” which has since then been resolved.
The DOTr and the AirAsia Group unit have since been working together to craft plane ticket pricing guidelines.
AirAsia Move CEO Nadia Omer also said earlier they were developing a technology in two to three months to cap the prices of plane tickets being sold in their app.
/rwd
