The Acting Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt Chris Najomo, said the aviation regulatory body has devised a means through the creation of a portal where passengers can make their complaints and get results following incessant flight delays by airlines.
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Najomo, who spoke at the weekend in Lagos, said the portal would go live in the next three months, just as he defended the airlines saying no airline wants to deliberately delay passengers or cancel flights. He equally stated that there were many other things the government was considering regarding airports that stop operations at 6 pm, stressing that the government was planning to provide night landing facilities in some of the aerodromes to enable airlines to have extended hours of operations. Najomo disclosed that the NCAA met with the airlines severally on sunset airports and see how it could upgrade them to 24-hour operations.
His words: “Talking about delays and cancellations; If you must know, when a delay happens, consumer protection officer on duty will investigate thoroughly what is the cause of that delay before any pronouncement is made and you all know that of course most times or sometimes these delays are not the fault of the airlines.
“But for those delays that are by the airlines, we begin to ask them what happened and going to give compensation to their passengers like first two hours you must serve refreshment. After two or three hours, you must refund cash if they have bought their ticket by cash or if you bought your ticket online, it takes 14 days to get your cash for refund. These are stated categorically in the Act.
You must follow it to ensure that all these are actualised. “We are not just protecting the airlines; we are also protecting the passengers. That is why we do an enlightenment campaign and at times you see people walking to the airport 20 minutes to departure and when they are denied boarding they start complaining.
Who is at fault? Some airlines automatically do what is called give refund and others give 50 per cent of the reduced fares as compensation.” He stated that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, was disturbed about flight delays and cancellations and asked what can be done to ameliorate the sufferings of many Nigerian travelers. “We told him that another way is to create a portal whereby consumers can make their complaints and get results. The portal will come live in the next three months.
No airline wants to delay. No airline wants to sell tickets and delay. There are so many other things that the government is looking at, talking about sunset airports. “We have sat down with the airlines severally to talk about going to sunset airports and upgrading the airports to 24 hours or at night. It is ongoing right now. There is a lot of sensitisation that we are putting in place. You have a lot of passengers who do not know their rights; they don’t read the rights. In the ticket, there are rules on them. When they are denied boarding that is when they start complaining. For us in NCAA, a lot is been done at the moment,” he said.
Najomo complained a few weeks ago when he met with some stakeholders in the sector, attributing the delays and flight cancellations to airlines biting more than they can chew; an indication that the carriers lack the capacity for many of the routes they are opening. Persistent flight delays and cancellations by Nigerian airlines have assumed a frightening dimension at many of the country’s airports. In some instances, it was discovered, air travellers wait for over six hours before their flight take-off or cancelled.
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