The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), on Saturday, clarified that the sanctions initiated against five airlines recently were for consumer protection-related infractions, and not for safety concerns.
NCAA made the clarification following reports making the rounds in some sections of the media, which the agency considered not to be true representation of the reasons behind the action.
Recall that, two weeks ago, the Authority’s Director of Consumer Protection and Public Affairs, Michael Achimugu, issued a warning that any airline that delayed the payment of refunds to passengers within the stipulated time frame in Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023, would be sanctioned.
A week later, the Regulatory agency announced that it had initiated enforcement action against Royal Air Maroc, Ethiopian Airways, Air Peace, Arik Air, and Aero Contractors.
Furthermore, the Acting Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Chris Najomo called an emergency stakeholder meeting to find lasting solutions to flight delays and cancellations, where he advised operators to trim their operations according to the number of aircraft they have and to treat consumer complaints with the desired urgency.
Reacting to the announcement, Allen Onyema, Chairman of Air Peace said that he had noticed that some of his finance staff actually delayed some of those payments and he was not happy about it as his vision did not align with any practice that inconveniences his passengers.
He accepted the NCAA’s enforcement action and said that the airline would improve its response time to such complaints.
Reports on some media platforms, however, suggested that the airlines might have been sanctioned for much more than just flight disruption issues.
In a statement sent in by Mr. Achimugu, he said, “Even the DGCA publicly announced at a stakeholders meeting in Lagos, the names of the airlines, and the reasons for the enforcement actions. My department is strictly for consumer protection issues, not technical matters. So why would anyone think that i can sanction an airline for safety reasons?”
“It is important to note that we do not sensationalise serious issues. The department protects both the operators and passengers and will continue to be an unbiased umpire,” He concluded.
