Airlines to reimburse passengers any delay for two hours —Minster

By Tobi Adetunji

Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika has warned that any delay for two hours and beyond, the carrier will  reimburse passengers the full volume of their tickets.

Speaking at the weekly State House Briefing in Aso Villa, Abuja, on Thursday, the Minister said, “On domestic flights, delay beyond one hour, the carrier should provide refreshments, and one telephone call, or one SMS, or one e-mail. They should send you an SMS or email or call you to say, ‘I am sorry, I am delaying for one hour.’

“Delay between 10pm and 4am, the carrier shall provide hotel accommodation, refreshment, meal, two free calls, SMS, email and transport to-and-fro airport,” Sirika said, adding that the same rules apply for international flights.”

He agreed that the development is partly the fault of the Ministry, “as we need to do more on creating awareness on the rights of air passengers and obligations of the airline.”

He said that it will name and shame any airline that will not conform with its operational processes across Nigeria.

The government has also said it will punish any airline that does not compensate its passengers for flight delays and cancellations.

He said, “Airlines, according to the law, are expected to compensate every passenger both local and international if their flights are either delayed or cancelled.

“I also witnessed an unfortunate incident in Lagos when an Air France flight was cancelled at night. The airline staff shut down and went home while passengers were left at the airport. I had to ensure they were all taken to Sheraton Hotel to be fed and sleep.

On the other hand, the Minister also added that air passengers need to be obedient and follow instructions given by the airline or the regulatory authorities in the sector. “Most of the passengers behave unruly here but do otherwise abroad,” he said.