NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*NCAA Records Over 100,000 Complaints Against Airlines In 4 Years

By Lateef Lawal

A total of 101,209 complaints by passengers against both domestic and foreign airlines were received in four years by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s(NCAA) Consumer Protection Unit. Out of this huge number of complaints, 94,231 cases were amicably resolved or compensated.

The major cases or issues handled were Missing Baggage, delayed Flights, Cancelled Flights, Overbooking and Denied Boarding, Pilferage or Discourtesy.

Dr Demuren pointed out that in carrying out this exercise, no Airline was immuned as the exercise covered all Airlines operating both on the International and Domestic routes in the country. He went further to intimate the House Committee with the Bill of Rights for passengers that is still in the making and that it would be well circulated for necessary awareness among passengers. Out of the aforementioned figure, the highest complaints were recorded in 2010 with a total of 30,943 cases with 28,956 of this either resolved or compensated. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Dr. Harold Olusegun Demuren, NCAA Director General

These figures were contained in the presentation of the Director General of NCAA, Dr Harold Olusegun Demuren to the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation.

He said that in 2011 a total of 28,209 cases were handled by the Authority out of which 27,861 were either resolved or compensated. In 2008, a total of 17,769 complaints were reported to NCAA by passengers out of which 13,646 were resolved.

In 2009, out of 24,288 cases, 23,768 were successfully treated. A further glance at the Complaints Handled Chart submitted before the House Committee on aviation by the Dr Demuren showed that Aero Contractors had the highest number of cases recorded against her with 206 cases in 2011 on the Domestic scene while Arik and Air Nigeria followed with 101 and 86 cases respectively.

Within same 2011, IRS had 23 cases, Associated 20, Dana 16, Overland 5, Chanchangi 4 and First Nation 4. On international flights within the same period, however revealed three major defaulters when it comes to passenger’s complaints against them as contained in the chat submitted to the House Committee by the DG, NCAA. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: An Airborne Plane

In it, KLM led others with 3,043 cases while Lufthansa came second with 2,864 cases and Delta Airline came third with 2,421 cases. All these cases have been resolved to the delight of passengers involved. Consumer protection initiatives already introduced by NCAA include the following:

*Development of consumer protection portal at the various airports for the provision of information that will assist the consumer decision making in their selection of their service providers.

*Provision of more enforcement laws to protect consumers across the board.

*In order to be dynamic, flexible and versatile, NCAA will initiate and sustain periodic stakeholders meetings to ensure that sensitive consumer protection issues are addressed.

Lateef Lawal (NigerianAviationNews)

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