IF what Dr. Harold Demuren, the Director- General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, said recently is anything to go by, then air travellers in Nigeria are on their way to assuming the status of “customer as king.”

Gone may be the days when airlines would treat their customers as if they were refugees lining up for free hand-outs.

At the recently concluded Aviation Associates Club inaugural lecture in Lagos, Demuren unfolded an agenda that might reduce the inconvenience suffered by commercial airline customers in the country. He called on airlines to come together and form what he called a “clearing house,” which will enable customers whose flights were delayed or cancelled to walk across to another airline and use the flight ticket they bought to fly to their destination without having to buy the ticket of the airline.

According to him: “Before the end of this year, we will make our position very clear; all private airlines in Nigeria will join the domestic clearing house. Any ticket you see or buy, you can put it on another airline in case of flight cancellation or delays. That is the way we can move forward.”

Demuren expressed regret that the Nigerian flying public have not been able to enjoy the benefits of the CAT 1 categorisation of our aviation industry announced by the former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Renee Sanders in October 2010. A number of improvements have taken place in most of our airports prior to, and since, that categorisation by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). This means that the American aviation regulators feel Nigeria has upgraded safety measures substantially enough to allow Nigerian airlines to fly directly to the US.

Some of these improvements include more thorough inspection of planes, security measures at the airports, perimeter fencing of the airports and a host of others. It is obviously thanks to these measures that the incidence of frequent air crashes that took place in 2005 has not been witnessed since then.

However, in terms of customer satisfaction with the way the airlines handle their comfort, there is little to reflect the CAT 1 certification. There are so many points of complaint. For example, airlines have remained callous about the incidence of delays and cancellations. Many flyers are subjected to bruising long hours of delays. In most cases, the airlines do not even bother to inform the customers about the reason they are being delayed and how long it will last. “Operational reasons” are always blamed. In case of such delays, customers are not permitted to seek refund to enable them move to another airline. They have to cough out more money and buy. Those who do not have the extra cash are left to their own devices. When circumstances force flights to take customers to transit points nothing is done to look after their welfare or comfort. In fact, an airline recently abandoned its customers in transit in a Senegal airport for days, creating an international uproar.

If Demuren’s NCAA is able to push through this “clearing house” system, customers can switch with ease from one airline to another in case of poor services even if they already have the ticket of a particular airline.

However, we caution that industry professionals must do a thorough homework before putting this scheme into action. The scheme will fail unless concrete steps are taken to increase the number of aircraft and airlines to all destinations in the country. Today, it is still a seller’s market in that demand tends to outstrip supply. Under such conditions little difference will be made by the clearing house scheme. The deregulation of the air ticket prices has shown that airlines that charge the highest prices still get a lot of customers. The reason is that even if these customers wanted to switch to an alternative to escape the high prices they have very limited choice to make.

For the CAT 1 certification to make sense, we must bring it to reflect on air travel customers in terms of greater safety and comfort. We support all efforts to protect the well being of air travellers. We also call on the regulatory authorities to be more up and doing in ensuring that airline operators conform to regulation policies. That is the sure way of meeting the safety and comfort needs of air travellers and retaining the much-coveted CAT certification.