Adac, Etihad suspend ticket auction

Abu Dhabi airport authorities suspended a novel online ticket auction just a few days after it was introduced because of bidders’ malpractices that pushed up the price of one ticket by more than 11 times.

The Abu Dhabi Airport Company (ADAC) said it would resume the auction on its website on February 12 for 60 air tickets involving 30 destinations in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi government-owned Etihad Airways.

ADAC stopped the auction, which was announced on February 5, after one ticket to the Jordanian capital Amman was auctioned for a whopping Dh21,000 although it is originally priced at Dh1,820.

“The auction will resume on February 12 according to new rules to avert fresh confusions and complications after organizers found that the present auction rules are not clear to most participants,” ADAC said in a statement.

It said all bids made during the first auction had been cancelled, adding that new regulations stipulate that the auctioned price must not exceed four times the original price and that each bidder is allowed to bid a maximum 10 times.

ADAC said bidding would be restricted to three hours instead of nine hours, adding that there would be no fines against any bidder under the new rules.

“ADAC expects all those who win the auction for two tickets each day to comply with the new rules,” the statement said.

ADAC launched the unique auction to mark its 30th anniversary, which it said allowed the company to cater for over 126 million passengers.

The auction will run for one month and participants can log on to the page of the airport website to bid for a pair of Etihad Airways tickets to one of its destinations.

Each day a new destination will be announced for two Etihad Airways tickets. The bid will run each working day starting 11 am and will end at 14 pm, when the highest bidder as the winner of the tickets of the day will be announced.

Proceeds of the auction will be collected by Abu Dhabi Airports Company by the end of the auction program on 15th March and split into two. 50% of the total amount collected will be donated to Zayed University in Abu Dhabi to be used in the student support fund program at the university.

 The remaining 50% of the auction proceeds will be won as a cash prize by one of the bidders through a raffle draw held in mid March. All bidders throughout the duration of the auction will automatically enter the draw for the final cash prize.

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