Nigeria: Bill Of Rights To Tackle Mounting Flight Delays

Perturbed by the frequency of delayed flights and sometimes outright cancellations by local airlines in Nigeria, often without explanations to passengers, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said that a new regulation that will guide issues pertaining to consumer protection and rights will soon be gazetted.

The air transport regulation termed “Bill of Rights” is in the final stages and only requires the regulatory authority to convey a stakeholders’ forum where the general public would have the opportunity to debate its provisions as well as make inputs.

LEADERSHIP findings showed that, globally, flights could be delayed due to technical reason, that is, if the aircraft has a minor fault that has to be fixed. Other reasons are bad weather, crowded skies, delay in issuing the pilot clearance to take off and, sometimes, when a passenger is not available at take-off time. However, in any of these cases, the airlines normally explain the cause(s) of the delay to passengers.

But this is not the case at the nation’s airports as passengers are kept for hours without any explanations from the airlines.

An air traveller who identified himself simply as Peter said he was so disgusted with the treatment he got from an airline that he has decided not to travel with that airline in future.

According to him, he bought a ticket online and, on getting to the airport for the scheduled flight, the airline kept shelving his travel time until he was finally able to travel with the last flight instead of the morning flight.

Also, Mrs. Fumi Alana, another air traveller, said because of the unreliability of airlines’ flight schedule she has learnt to plan her trips in such a way that she travels with the first flight in order to ensure the success of any event she is working on.

Air travellers have also complained that airlines are not acting responsibly towards them in terms of adequate compensations and refunds. Mr. Sam Adurogboye, spokesman for NCAA, exclusively told LEADERSHIP that NCAA was concerned about issues relating to customer service of airlines and has set up a consumer protection unit (CPU) which currently oversees complaints by travellers, pending the signing of the Bill of Rights into law. He said the CPU acts based on reports from travellers and has so far been effective in settling issues of lost baggage, refunds for cancelled flights, among others. He said the CPU acts based on complaints brought by consumers.

However, Captain Dele Ore, an aviation lawyer and consultant, said the existing regulations were adequate to ensure the protection of customer rights.

But the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said the over-ambition of airline operators, like wanting to have a big network of routes, was a major cause of flight delays in Nigeria.

Speaking in an exclusive chat with LEADERSHIP at the weekend in Abuja, the regional general manager, North-Central, Mr. Chris Bature, said that the incessant delay in flights and outright cancellations, at times by airline operators, can be attributed to over-ambition by operators without the necessary wherewithal to sustain their operations.

Bature said, “Some airlines want to cover a large area when they do not have the capacity to sustain it; they do not have enough aircraft and skilled staff to carter for the routes, because route planning is a very cumbersome and difficult thing to do because once a flight is delayed in one destination, it will affect the arrival and estimated take-off time in other destinations.”

The RGM further said that the delay in flights stretches the facilities provided for a specified number of people by the airport authority.

“Aircraft delay is worrisome in the sense that it impacts not only on customers/travelers but also impacts on economic, social and cultural activities. It also impacts and stretches the facilities provided by the airport authority. The airports are designated for a particular number of people.

“For example, the international wing of the NnamdiAzikiwe International Airport, Abuja, was designed to accommodate 500 people per hour, but due to delays in flight the hall has over 1,500 to 2,000 per hour. This stretches the cooling system, the sitting space and the conveniences in the airport,” he added.

Bature revealed that a committee has been set up to specifically look at reasons for the incessant delays of flights and proffer solutions for better service delivery.

Another source at the airlines regulatory body, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), who begged for anonymity, said that the organisation had stepped in from time to time to get justice for disgruntled customers.

She said, “There are instances where we have forced airline operators to lodge customers in hotels when they cancel flights at night and at times customers have been refunded their monies or given a bonus in some cases where their flights were delayed.”

She said that it was not always easy to sanction operators because most of the reasons for the flight delays are often technical reasons or weather-related, which are inevitable.

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