The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, is working on a portal that will enable passengers monitor and report flight delays and cancellations for the Agency’s prompt action.
Acting Director-General of the NCAA, Capt Chris Najomo said the Authority is determined to ensure passengers are properly guided and treated in accordance with laid down rules where sanctions are meted out to erring airlines and passengers adequately compensated.
With the support of the portal passengers can make their complaints and get results following incessant flight delays by airlines.
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 are 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 at severally 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 enlightenment campaigns and at times you see people walking to the airport 20 minutes before departure and when they are denied boarding they start complaining. Who is at fault? Some airlines automatically do what is called give a 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.
