The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said that in a bid for air travelers to monitor flight delays and cancellations, the agency was planning to launch a new portal for that purpose.
Capt. Chris Najomo, the Acting Director-General of Civil Aviation (ADGCA) in an interaction with aviation journalists over the weekend at the annex office of NCAA, Lagos, said that the portal would be ready for launch in the next three months.
He explained that with the portal, air travelers would be able to lodge their complaints and receive responses in record time.
Najomo, however, said that the airlines alone could not be blamed for the incessant flight delays and cancellations.
According to him, factors like weather, Very Important Persons (VIP) movement, and technical issues also contribute to flight delays and cancellations, among the airlines.
Besides, in a bid to extend flying hours for operators and reduce flight cancellations, the NCAA was considering providing night landing facilities in some of the aerodromes to enable airlines to have extended hours of operations across the country.
Najomo emphasized that the NCAA had met with the airlines and discussed how it could increase operating hours for the carriers.
He said: “Talking about delays and cancellations, if you must know, when a delay happens, the consumer protection officer on duty will investigate 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 caused by the airlines, we begin to ask them what happened and are going to give compensation to their passengers, like for the 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 actualized.
“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 a refund and others give 50 percent of the reduced fares as compensation.”
Source: Independent
