The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has reiterated it’s commitment to creating awareness and educating air passengers on the issue of flight delay and disruption .
The NCAA Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection , Michael Achimugu who made the statement during a media interview at a stakeholder meeting organised by the Authority to discuss the issue of flight disruptions said a lot of complaints from passengers have made the Authority aware that air passengers are oblivious of their rights and responsibilities as well as the regulations laid down by the authority.
He added that air passengers are uninformed that not all flight flight disruptions are caused by commercial airlines but some of the aviation agencies.
Achimugu noted that the NCAA Consumer Protection Portal has been effective in solving these problems, however , there are bottlenecks that are being dealt with.
He emphasised that Airlines are meant to provide their staffs with official e-mails which is acceptable on the portal.
The NCAA spokesperson listed notable developments that have been made possible by the NCAA Director General, Chris Najomo, to upgrade the aviation sector.
“There have been a lot of complaints that has made us aware that Nigeria passengers are mostly not aware of the regulations. They do not know the extent of their rights and responsibilities. We need to do more. It is on us the NCAA to do more awareness to educate them.They do not also understand that not nearly all disruptions are caused by the Airlines themselves. We will continue to engage stakeholders robustly.
“Within the NCAA we have been trying to troubleshoot a lot of times on the portal. It would happen as it is an initial phase. We will keep discovering issues and solving the problems till all things are balanced. With the Airlines, the problem most times has been the e-mail that they have been providing their staffs. They are personal emails and we don’t accept that on the portal. We accept official emails. Sometimes maybe because they are overwhelmed with work and dealing with consumer complaints as well. They don’t get back to us as quickly as we need them to and that is why we have given them the 48 hours marching order. Most of them are onboarded already but the remaining ones really need to get that done on time.
“The automation process going on at the NCAA and the ease of doing business without compromising standards that Captain Chris Najomo has brought about has brought massive improvement to the industry because the operators are able to get processes and licensing certificates done. That has helped them improved the quality of services to passengers. The Consumer Protection site has made the NCAA more visible and efficient.” he said.
