NCAA targets more airlines for consumer protection breaches
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has announced plans to impose sanctions on more airlines for violating consumer protection regulations
This follows recent actions taken against carriers for unresolved complaints and regulatory violations, signaling a stricter enforcement of passenger rights and industry regulations.
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, made this disclosure on Sunday.
“More airlines are going to be sanctioned shortly for similar offences. It is with the legal department at the moment, waiting to proceed to the DG’s desk for signing,” he revealed.
However, he clarified that “what has been announced is not the sanction itself but the initiation of the enforcement action.”
He added “Now there’s a process to it. It’s my job to initiate these sanctions. Then we escalate it to the legal department. The legal department looks at it to ensure that we have no legal liability and that we are in order concerning the specific sanctions that I have listed, right? Then the DG will sign it. Now, it is when the DG signs it that it becomes an enforcement action.”
Speaking on the agency’s recent actions against five airlines, Achimugu revealed that many of the sanctioned carriers have started responding to the enforcement measures.
“Royal Air Maroc, I have summoned them to come to the office. Air Peace, of course, you heard the chairman himself acknowledged and accepted the sanctions. Aero has called in to say that they have already treated seven of the 11 cases for which we are sanctioning them,” he stated.
He also noted progress with other airlines. “Ethiopian Airlines has written in to say that they have actually resolved cases for which we sanctioned them. However, I have asked them to send in their compliance report, which will show whether they resolved those cases before or after we announced those sanctions. Arik has also written in to say that their legal team is working on it.”
However, Achimugu stressed that the enforcement process will persist for any infractions that remain unresolved.
“Even for those who have said, ‘Look, we have resolved this number out of the entire list, it means that there are still some that are unresolved. They will still be sanctioned for those,” he said.
Meanwhile, Achimugu also clarified that failure to respond to NCAA correspondence is itself a sanctionable infraction.
“In any case, some of the infractions are that they did not respond to correspondence from the NCAA, which is in itself an infraction, sanctionable. So, they will definitely be sanctioned for that,” he noted.
He also stated that the NCAA’s actions seem to be yielding positive results.
“They are doing a whole lot of new things. People are getting refunded quickly, expressly, ever since that announcement was made. So, it’s getting us the results that we had anticipated, and we will continue to do more,” Achimugu added.
