Strengthening Consumer Protection in Aviation Sector
Last week, the Aviation Minister, Senator Hadi Sirika said local air passengers in Nigeria who suffer flight delays at the airport for two hours (the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) later corrected it to three hours) or more are entitled to a refund of their full ticket value from the airline.
Sirika, who featured in the weekly ministerial press briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team at the State House, Abuja, stated that infringements to the rights of travellers, both local and international, have laid down rules and guidelines that spell rights and punishments, just as there are punishments for travellers’ violation of good behaviour.
According to him, there are channels of laying complaints at the airports, which would see to it that customer rights and privileges are protected but noted that most travellers fail to take advantage of the provisions because they fail to pay attention to instructions and information hanging around airports.
However, what the Minister said was not new because it is contained in the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulation (NCAR) 2015 as amended, Part 19, which deals with Passengers’ Rights and Responsibilities and Airlines’ Obligations to Passengers.
That section addresses consumer protection issues, including, compensations for denied boarding, delays and cancellations of flights.
But with his pronouncement the matter was brought to the fore and elicited a lot of reaction from passengers, even as industry observers said while passenger protection is necessary, the Minister’s reinforcement of what is already existing gave the regulation a new twist and seems to have empowered passengers.
On many occasions passengers have beaten up airlines ground staff and few years ago, there was even attempt to stop a Turkish Airlines flight that was about to take off by passengers whose luggage did not arrive the country with them at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Travel expert and organiser of Akwaaba African Travel Market, Ikechi Uko, told THISDAY that in response to the Minister ’s statement, passengers last Saturday at the Abuja airport became combative and violent when their flights were delayed.
Uko, who said he witnessed the passengers’ violent reaction, noted that refunding passengers their full fare if their flight was delayed for three hours is not practical because most often the cause of the delay is beyond the airlines.
“If there is rain and you shut down the airport, all the flights will be delayed. What I saw last Saturday where passengers were fighting the staff of airlines, including Aero Contractors, Air Peace and Ibom Air indicated that they were energised by the Minister’s pronouncement.
“By saying this I am not condoning airlines’ bad service but what happened to the three airlines was bad because what caused the delay was beyond their control. It was mayhem that day and I would rather say that refunding passengers their full fare after three hours is unrealistic; maybe four hours.
“Rainfall, bad weather or even VIP movement and other factors can delay flights. I pitied the staff of airlines that day,” he said.
A top official with one of the domestic carriers told THISDAY that what the Minister said was not practical because the main cause of delay is lack of infrastructure and airlines cannot be held responsible for that.
He noted that little weather change can make airlines stop flights because there are no modern and efficient navigational aids, but in many other countries, flights operate under heavy rain and inclement weather because of modern navigational equipment. In Nigeria poor visibility leads to shutting down of the airspace.
The official also noted that the major area where airlines could be held responsible for delays is in the reliability of operating aircraft, noting that many aircraft deployed for operation in Nigeria are old and therefore yield to frequent breakdown.
“The reliability of operating aircraft is the major challenge airlines are facing. This is because most of the equipment is old so they break down very often. There are a lot of snags but we have very high reliability in our own operation because we stay above 90 per cent in our schedule. But due to poor navigational equipment flight operations are adversely affected by the rains and during the harmattan. However, they are yet to enforce the policy. The day they will enforce it, it will open a can of worms,” the official said.
The President of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Nigeria and Managing Director Smile Air, Alex Nwuba said flight delays have been with the industry since the beginning of time, remarking that there seemed to be an expanded interest in delays as if it is something deliberate and could be fully mitigated.
“All the talk about 48 hours refunds seems not to understand that aviation is a business in which the operators have cash flow management as part of their process.
“The money from the ticket you purchased was not kept in the bank waiting for you to travel, it was used to fund the numerous and often unrecoverable costs of your trip, trips before and after.
“Those that have never run a business are attempting to create an environment that will lead to more business failures or at a minimum, difficulty in running airlines. I have often said that talk is nice but the 48-hour rule is unrealistic and perhaps unenforceable because there will be many ways to justify a delay and refunds, even in court may not be enforceable as ruled,” he said.
Uko, who said he witnessed the passengers’ violent reaction, noted that refunding passengers their full fare if their flight was delayed for three hours is not practical