DOTr prepares case against AirAsia Move for overpriced tickets

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is preparing an economic sabotage case against AirAsia Move for allegedly selling plane tickets from Tacloban at unreasonably high prices.

Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon announced during a press briefing on Monday that the DoTr is investigating complaints after ticket prices booked via AirAsia MOVE reached up to P39,000 one way, compared to around P49,507 for similar tickets directly booked through Philippine Airlines' website.

Dizon stressed that these high prices might be due to limited access to the San Juanico Bridge and ordered the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to investigate other online platforms suspected of overcharging plane tickets in Tacloban and other destinations.

AirAsia Move clarified that it does not manually set or manipulate airfares but attributed the issue to temporary data synchronization problems with flight pricing partners, affirming its full cooperation with the Philippine government.

The DOTr is now in talks with the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the anti-cybercrime division of the Philippine National Police to block access to AirAsia MOVE's website as well as its mobile application.