The Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, has said regulators of the aviation sector will begin to compel airlines to compensate passengers for delayed or cancelled flights by January 2024.
The minister disclosed this on Tuesday when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Aviation to defend his ministry’s budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
Over half of the domestic flights in Nigeria between January and March were delayed, according to data from the regulator, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Of the total 18,288 domestic flights within the period, 10,128 were delayed, representing 55 per cent.
On Tuesday, Mr Keyamo also assured that a list of airlines that delayed or cancelled flights will be published in the media every week as part of the compensation scheme.
“I have called the customer’s satisfactory commission regarding the treatment of Nigerians. In fact, I have gone back to the committee, that is how much concern I am concerned.
“And I have said at the last address that I gave during our stakeholders meeting in Lagos and our retreat in Warri.
“I said on a weekly basis, please publish the list of airlines that do not fly as at when due, cancelled flights, delayed flights, how many hours it was delayed, were there compensation, actions they took as regulator against these airlines. We are starting that in January.”
The aviation minister proposed that a discount should be deducted from the flight tickets of airlines that delayed passengers as part of the compensation.
“For every delay, there is a report, an actual report by the regulator. What did they do? Did they pay compensation? And if they didn’t pay compensation, we have said that the other way to get compensation if they can return cash is that once the passenger is buying the next ticket, it must be given a rebate. That passenger must be given a 50 per cent rebate or 40 per cent rebate because there must be a rebate.”
Concession of Airports
Keyamo said the best option to develop Nigerian airports is through concessions to investors. “Private partnership must come to the fore. It is not even negotiable, we don’t have the funds to do so (manage the airports).
“In concession, we will give the people what we want, not what they want. We have to decide what we want. It is the nature, the quality of the concession that all of us will agree on.
“We want to go ahead but I want every one of us to sit down, look for the best hands. We should go to the end of this world to look for the best and the best thing for Nigeria and raise our offer to tier one, not tier two. Tier one investors should come to Nigeria and build our gateway for us,” the minister said.