The House of Representatives at its plenary session of Wednesday, 14 February 2018 mandated its Committee on Aviation to liaise with relevant airline operators to ensure that passengers’ rights and privileges are satisfactorily respected. This came after a motion titled “Flagrant Abuse of Passengers’ Rights by Nigerian Airline Operators” was presented on the floor of the House.
Presenting the motion on the floor Hon. Yusuf Ayo Tajudeen (PDP: Kogi) stated that there had been consistent disregard and outright violation of the rights of Nigerian passengers by local airline operators. He also accused many local airlines of perpetrating ill-treatment on passengers and failing to adhere to the terms and conditions of their contracts with travelers. He listed some of these breaches to include flight delays, penalty for missed flights, discriminatory charges, flight cancellation and more; contrary to global practices in the Aviation Industry.
In addition, he said that besides passengers not getting value for money, some airline operators had devised shady and questionable measures to deny customers of their basic entitlement. He further expressed worry that these unwholesome practices depicted Nigeria in a bad light to its expatriate community that patronised local airlines for their respective engagements. He highlighted that the failure of Nigeria’s air regulatory agencies to carry out their mandate had encouraged unsatisfactory service in the industry; with passengers being treated in contempt.
