The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has expressed worry over the continued incidents of incessant flight delays, disruptions, and schedule changes without adequate notice to passengers.
The Acting Director General, Civil Aviation, Captain Chris Najomo, reiterated the need for airlines to improve their services as the current record of flight disruptions, poor customer experience and poor handling of passengers is unacceptable and something that must be improved upon.
He stated that airlines must rejig their flight schedule to match their number of serviceable aircraft and that airlines are all aware of the airports which have sunset operations.
A report by the regulatory body at that weekend revealed that 53% of the total flights operated in Nigeria in 2023 were delayed while only 1% was cancelled.
Capt. Najomo said airlines “must consider scheduling flights into sunset airports early in the day so as to minimize cancellations as a result of airport closure at sunset.
“It is no longer business as usual as errant airlines will be sanctioned appropriately without fear or favour. The NCAA has stepped up its surveillance to monitor compliance with a view to fish out violators.”
“Airlines must handle persons with reduced mobility properly, with dignity and without discrimination as airlines are mandated to provide facilities for the movement of Persons with reduced mobility and by virtue of the provisions of Nigeria Civil aviation regulations part 19, airlines are required to provide on their ticket portal a mandatory field for special needs assistance and require their agents to actively ask customers during ticket purchase if they will require assistance” he added.
