The Acting Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Chris Najomo has announced that starting from January 2024, airlines found responsible for delayed passengers or actions leading to flight delays or cancellations will be required to provide affected travelers with a 25% rebate on their next flight with the same airline.
Najomo disclosed this during a meeting with a group of aviation stakeholders at his office in Lagos.
He emphasized that the NCAA is set to implement various decisions aimed at enhancing consumer protection and airport certification within the aviation industry.
While acknowledging that certain factors contributing to flight delays or cancellations are beyond the control of airlines, Najomo assured that the aviation regulatory body is actively addressing these issues internally to alleviate the challenges that have diminished the joy of air travel for passengers.
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He said, “The airlines are biting more than they can chew. Lack of planning is causing some of the delays we are experiencing. Some airlines for instance have less than four aircraft and they want to fly all the routes. That is not possible because four aircraft capacities cannot sustain the type of operations you are doing.”
“Some of the delays, and cancellations by Air Peace are because you want to go everywhere when there may not be adequate aircraft to cover that volume of operations”.
Capt. Najomo also mentioned that a policy would be formulated to ensure that state-owned airports are operated by state governments for a minimum of five years before being transferred to the management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
He highlighted that among the 32 airports in the country, only about six are economically viable, including Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja; Port-Harcourt International Airport; Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano; and Owerri Airport.
Najomo expressed the necessity for regulatory authorities to allocate revenue generated from the four viable terminals in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano to subsidize operations in other airports managed by FAAN.