The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority has announced ongoing investigations that could lead to broader sanctions against Royal Air airline over alleged unprofessional conduct and non-compliance with regulatory standards.
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, told our correspondent that broader investigations into other cases involving Royal Air Maroc are underway.
“We are also investigating a myriad of other cases that may lead to larger sanctions, broader sanctions against Royal Air Maroc.”
Providing details on the ongoing processes, he said, “It is still with the legal unit, who have gone through it and have given us some advice. We have updated the documents, and legal is now processing the final stage of it,” Achimugu explained.
He highlighted that the announcement made by the NCAA was only the initiation of enforcement action, not the issuance of sanctions.
“Perhaps the airline is also obligated to respond when the sanction is official. What we did was announce an initiation of enforcement action against them. We did not report sanctions.
“Now, when the sanction has been signed by the Director-General, it goes into effect. That is when they will pay the fines for those that are fined.
“We are a government organisation, and we have processes that must be completed before action is taken. That process is ongoing.
“The most important thing is that we have announced the initiation of enforcement action. It will go through the process, and it will be affected.”
Regarding responses from airlines, Achimugu noted that several carriers, including Air Peace, Aero Contractors, Ethiopian Airlines, and Arik Air, had reached out to the NCAA. However, their responses are still under review.
“The Air Peace, you heard what the chairman himself said. Aero has reached out to us. Ethiopian has reached out to us. Arik has also reached out to us. Their responses for now may not be fully official yet until the sanction itself goes into effect.
“However, some of them have written to say, ‘Look, some of these cases we have resolved them now. We are looking at the records to see if they resolved those cases after the announcement of the initiation of enforcement action or before. This investigation is part of what has delayed the final process. Because everybody deserves a fair hearing.”
Achimugu further explained that verifying claims by airlines required additional steps, including contacting passengers to confirm whether their grievances had been resolved.
“They have written to say, ‘Look, some of these cases you are looking for, we have resolved this and that. So, we need to check what date this was resolved. We need to reach out to the passengers themselves. Has this case been resolved to your satisfaction? Sometimes getting the passengers may take a delay because some of them may be out of the country or unreachable. Until we are able to reach them and get feedback from them, we cannot just take what the airline has said for it. So, that has been the delay.”
The PUNCH recently reported that Michael Achimugu cautioned airlines against breaching the timelines specified in Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023 for processing passenger refunds, stressing that non-compliance would attract sanctions.
A week later, the NCAA initiated enforcement actions against Royal Air Maroc, Ethiopian Airlines, Air Peace, Arik Air, and Aero Contractors.
This move came after the agency issued a warning in response to a significant increase in passenger complaints.
Following these incidents, the NCAA announced that it is set to fine Royal Air Maroc up to N300m for alleged unprofessional conduct and non-compliance with regulatory standards.
The agency also said that it is preparing to impose what can be the largest sanction in the history of Nigeria’s aviation industry against the airline.
