CPC, NCAA clash over ill-treatment of passengers by airlines
By Henry Umoru
THE Consumer Protection Council, CPC is set for ‘war’ with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) over what it described as ill_treatment of passengers by air line operators in the country following incessant cancellation and delay of flight schedules without explanations.
In a protest letter to the NCAA and signed by the CPC Director_General, Mrs Ify Umenyi, called on the aviation sector regulatory body to curtail the continued suffering of Nigerian consumers by prevailing on the operators in the industry to among others overhaul their general operations as well as improve on information dissemination. Meanwhile, the Consumer Protection Council has fixed its Consumer Congress for 27th October, 2010 where it is expected that a critical look would be taken on these issues with a view to addressing them.
In the letter dated 4th October, 2010 with reference number CPC/HQ/206 and made available to Journalists in Abuja, the Consumer Protection Council noted that it has in the last one month received series of complaints from consumers, just as the agency alleged that air transport consumers suffer between three to eight hours of delayed flight, most times without announcement, not even compensation of any kind.
The letter read in part, “the most worrisome of all is the fact that, in as much as it has become a norm for consumers to furnish airline ticketing officers with their telephone contacts while purchasing their tickets, such contact numbers are scarcely used to advise consumers on the status of their flights before getting to the airport. This happens even when it may have been known to the operator before_hand that flights will not be operated as scheduled”.
Though the CPC noted that different factors like bad weather, technical hitches and operational challenges in the form of disruption in fuel supply could be attributed to why these problems exist, Umenyi however warned that “the frequency of these occurrences and a situation where lack of proper information dissemination makes consumers to suffer unduly is unacceptable.
“It is against international norms and global best practices for consumers to be denied any form of compensation when they experience long delays and cancellation of their flights”.
“Airlines may have been getting away with all these due to the lack of existing passenger rights laws in Nigeria. But should this trend continue, organizations like ours may, sooner than later, be compelled to take actions that will subject them to untoward consequences.”
