The Directorate of Consumer Protection (DCP) of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has resolved 55,000 complaints in almost two years.
But some of the complaints were roll over cases from the previous years which were eventually resolved alongside subsequent ones.
Fan Ndubuoke general manager public affairs of the agency in a statement in Lagos said in 2013, a total number of 15,839 complaints were received from 13,954 International airlines operations and from the Domestic airlines 382 from 65,368 operations.
While, between January and September 2014 there was a drastic reduction in complaints as the Authority received 5,578 from 11,683 foreign operations and domestic 184 from 51,212 operations.
These complaints have a preponderance of missing baggage cases from foreign carriers which was 14,828 and 202 from domestic carriers in 2013.In 2014; there was an obvious decline with foreign carriers having 5,428 cases and 97 for domestic airlines.
Delayed flights on International routes were 2341 and 24,358 complaints from local routes in 2013.On the other hand; in 2014 the international airlines had 3288 an upward movement due to some certain extraneous factors while the local airlines had 24,111 a marginal decrease.
Similarly, there were 131 complaints arising from cancelled flights from the international carriers and 229 from the domestic carriers in 2013.A total number of 345 flights were cancelled in 2014 while on the domestic flights we had 167.
Overbooking and Denied boarding on foreign operations had 57 complaints and 63 for local operations. The subsequent year 2014 saw foreign operations providing 31 complaints and the domesticate operators had likewise (31) a reduction from the previous year.
In addition, Domestic operators had a total of 97 mishandled/misrouted baggage where (76) were found. While 5,428 on international routes and 22,895 were found.
Other complaints such as pilferage and discourtesy on the international flights received a total number of 109 complaints in 2013 and 101 on domestic.
These complaints reduced in 2014 to 83 on international route and 59 on the local route.
With the attendant increase in the volume of passenger traffic, the regulatory Authority has correspondingly strengthened the Directorate of Consumer Protection (DCP). A wide range of enlightenment campaign was embarked upon by the NCAA and is it ongoing.
This was done by extensive training of the corps of Consumer Protection Officers to augment their capacity to monitor flight operations at the various airports. In addition, they were skilled in receipt, processing, mediation and resolution of complaints from aggrieved passengers.
At the end, Consumer Protection Officers were posted to all the Airports in the country. This is to ensure that passengers derive maximum comfort in all their trips. To all intent and purposes, the airlines are now very much aware of their responsibilities to their passengers and complaints are dwindling.
As a corollary to the increase in consumer protection activities and the success rate of positive closure of complaints and attendant compensations, these have caused a multiplier effect on the number of foreign airlines operating into Nigeria. It rose from 29 in 2013 to 34 in 2014 while other applications are receiving attention.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has taken a decisive and strong approach to ensure all airlines operating in and out of Nigeria must ensure safe, secure and comfortable operations. Passengers parting with their hard earn cash must get value for their money while all the rules of engagement on the tickets must be continuously upheld.
By Yemisi Izuora-Lagos