The Philippine government will be filing an economic sabotage case against AirAsia Move. This is after the online travel booking platform was found selling its flight tickets at a much higher rate than they should be.
In a statement, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon said AirAsia Move has taken advantage of the dire transport situation that was caused by the partial closure of the San Juanico Bridge which was implemented to prevent structural deterioration. As the 2.16km bridge is the primary link between Samar and Leyte islands, the restriction has a major effect on the economy in the region.
Vince has highlighted the experience of Richard Gomez, the Leyte 4th District Representative, who has to pay almost PHP40,000 (~RM3,053) for a 1-way ticket from Tacloban to Manila. As a comparison, the actual air fare for the 1 hour 25 minutes is said to be around PHP12,000 (~RM916).
The case will be filed by the country’s Department of Transport (DOTr) and Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), while the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines will also look into the pricing issue. At the same time, Vince has instructed the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group to shut down access to the AirAsia Move app for the time being.
AirAsia Move: We didn’t set the price manually
Meanwhile, AirAsia Move has provided its side of the story through a statement by its CEO, Nadia Omer. The company said that the discrepancies in the airfare for certain routes, including domestic flights operated by the national carrier Philippine Airlines, were caused by a temporary data synchronisation issue with flight pricing partners.
AirAsia Move also pointed out that the pricing discrepancy has also affected other booking platforms such as Agoda, Kiwi.com, and Traveloka. The company further insists it does not set or manipulate the airfares manually.
The statement also highlighted that AirAsia Move has taken immediate action once it noticed the discrepancy by highlighting it to the 3rd party pricing provider. In addition to that, the platform has implemented several measures to prevent such incidents in the near future.
