The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is reportedly planning to penalize more airlines for violating passenger rights regulations. This follows recent motion taken against several airlines for failing to properly handle complaints or comply with regulations.
According to The Punch, this was reported by Michael Achimugu, who deals with public affairs and consumer protection on the NCA. He said: “More airlines will soon be fined for similar crimes. It is currently in the legal department and waiting for signature on the DG’s desk.”
He explained that the present announcements are just the start, saying: “What has been announced is not about the sanctions themselves. This is the initiation of enforcement proceedings.”
Achimugu then explained how the method works: “Now it’s a process. My job is to initiate these sanctions. We then forward the case to the legal department. The legal department is reviewing this to make sure we don’t have any legal liability and that everything is in order with the specific sanctions I listed, right? The DG will then sign it. Now only when it is signed by the DG does it become a means of enforcing the law.”
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Many airlines are already responding to the initial sanctions. “Royal Air Maroc, I called them to the office. Of course, you heard that the president himself confirmed and accepted the sanctions. “Aero called and said that it has already processed seven of the 11 cases for which we are sanctioning them,” Achimugu said.
“Ethiopian Airlines wrote that it had indeed resolved the matters for which we had imposed sanctions on it. However, I have asked them to submit a compliance report that will show whether they resolved these matters before or after we announced these sanctions. Arik also wrote that their legal team is working on it.”
But Achimugu made clear that airlines would still face consequences for any remaining issues: “Even for many who said, ‘Look, we have removed this number from the entire list, which means some are still unresolved. They will still be punished for it.”
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