A Mombasa-based travel agent has dropped a suit against KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in which it had sought a permanent injunction to restrain it from demanding $126,338.47 (Sh16.3 million) linked to five flight tickets allegedly purchased fraudulently.
Through its lawyer, Kilindini Travel Centre Ltd told the court that the case had been overtaken by events since the demand they wanted had stopped being made.
"The demand has already been made, the client is seeking remedy elsewhere, the suit can be withdrawn," the lawyer told Justice Florence Wangari of the High Court in Mombasa.
The judge allowed the application by the firm, marked the case as withdrawn, and closed the file.
In its case, Kilindini Travel Centre had said it is an accredited travel agent with the International Air Travel Association (IATA) in carrying out and conducting air ticketing business for local and international travel.
The company said on May 13, a set of five air tickets was purchased from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines by an unknown entity or person using the Kilindini Travel Centre portal with a travel itinerary from Tokyo, Japan, to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and back to Tokyo, Japan.
Kilindini Travel Centre said the five air tickets were purchased using a credit card, which is not the normal operating procedure in the industry, as an agent like itself in purchasing air tickets for its customers is done through a given designated bank.
Read: Mombasa travel agent sues KLM in Sh16m ticket fraud row
According to the agency, the owners of the air tickets never travelled, and instead, on May 15, all the tickets were cancelled, and a request for a refund was made, which the airline honoured, and all money paid out for the air tickets was refunded. It stated that the purchase of the said five air tickets was a fraud committed against it for unknown reasons.
Kilindini Travel Centre said the purchaser of the five air tickets in question and all the named passengers are unknown to it, and at no time has it ever dealt with them in the course of its business.
"The plaintiff stated that the said five air tickets were of the Juliet type in the air travel industry, and they are the most expensive tickets in the business class air travel," argues Kilindini Travel Centre in its case filed on September 29.
The agency said KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has lodged a claim against it for payment of the money, alleging that the amount is the cost of the refunded air tickets, arguing that they were non-refundable and that they were issued in breach of the Air Fare Rules.