The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has reiterated that airlines operating in Nigeria are expected to update passengers every 30 minutes whenever a flight disruption occurs.
The Director of Consumer Protection and Public Affairs at the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, disclosed this while outlining passengers’ rights and the responsibilities of airlines in cases involving flight delays, cancellations and baggage-related problems.
Achimugu noted that flight disruptions occur across the world and cannot always be avoided, but airlines are still obligated to provide adequate care to affected passengers, irrespective of the cause.
He said, “Flight disruptions must continue to occur everywhere in the world. Now, where they have occurred, the airline, by the regulations, has duties of care to passengers. It doesn’t matter whose fault that disruption is.”
He explained that airlines are not necessarily responsible for every disruption at an airport, although they are often blamed because passengers interact directly with them during such situations.
He said, “One message that has been most consistent from my department has been that airlines, both Nigerian airlines and international airlines operating in Nigeria, are not always the direct causes of the disruptions that occur at the airport. They may be the faces of it; they may take the blame a lot of the time, but they are not always the apostles of those disruptions.”
According to Achimugu, the foremost obligation of an airline during a disruption is to keep passengers properly informed.
He said, “Now, what does the regulation say? Information is most critical and number one.”
He added, “Now, where a disruption has occurred, the airline holds the passenger’s information every 30 minutes on the status of that flight.
“Every 30 minutes, are airlines complying with this? When your flight has been delayed at the airport, have the airlines been giving you information every 30 minutes? Take note: timely and honest information.”
The NCAA official also said airlines have obligations to provide refreshments and meals when delays extend for certain periods.
He said, “Two hours into a delay, the airline is expected to provide passengers life refreshment.
“Six hours into a lengthy delay, the airline has to provide its passengers with proper meals, proper meals. The airline may also owe its passengers hotel accommodation between the hours of 10 pm and 4 am. Depending on the circumstances, there are other scenarios in which passengers are also entitled to accommodation.”
On baggage-related complaints, Achimugu advised passengers whose luggage did not arrive with their flight to understand that reporting the issue does not necessarily mean the bag would be returned the next day.
He said, “Now, for baggage issues, this is very important. I realise in our experience here that most passengers, when their bag is short-landed today, expect that because they filed a complaint with the CAA, by tomorrow their bags compulsorily must also have arrived. That’s not the way it works.”
He explained that international airlines have up to 21 days to locate and reunite passengers with missing baggage, while domestic airlines have seven days.
He said, “By international regulations, especially the Montreal 1999 Convention, for international flights, the airline has up to 21 days, 21 days to search for and reconcile you with your bag. For domestic flights, it is seven days.”
According to him, airlines may classify the baggage as lost and commence the compensation process if it is not recovered within the applicable timeframe.
He said, “So after 21 days for international and seven days for domestic, if your bag has not been found, the airline may then declare it lost and then initiate compensation to pay to the passenger owner of the bag.”
Achimugu further stated that the NCAA follows established procedures before imposing sanctions on airlines for consumer protection breaches. He said affected passengers are expected to submit complaints to the authority.
“Another reason why we don’t just move straight to sanctions is that, look, there are processes. As far as the regulations are concerned, a passenger who has been affected must have filed a complaint with the CAA.
“The CAA does not shop for cases. But if someone who has been affected has filed a complaint, we may not even necessarily be able to look into some of those cases. When this has happened, and the passenger has filed a complaint, then we can write an LOI to the airline.”
Explaining the procedure, Achimugu said an LOI, which stands for letter of investigation, generally comes before enforcement action.
He said, “An LOI means a letter of investigation.
“This is usually a precursor to enforcement. When we are asking the airline, this has been noticed with your airline, or this complaint has been filed, what do you have to say about it? Tell us what happened. Tell us what remedies you have put in place. How did you comply with the regulations when the disruption happened?”
He noted that an airline that satisfactorily explains the situation and meets its obligations to passengers cannot be sanctioned merely because a flight was delayed or cancelled.
He said, “And then if we get a satisfactory answer and the airline has fulfilled its duties of care, it is not possible to sanction that airline. This is very important.
“It is not possible or correct to sanction an airline because of a delay or cancellation if they have fulfilled the requirements of the regulations and provided you the duty of care.”
Achimugu also recalled that the NCAA imposed sanctions on airlines for consumer protection violations for the first time in 2024.
He said the sanctions followed established breaches of consumer protection regulations, noting that the chairman of one of the affected airlines had publicly admitted the violation.
“This is why you may recall that in 2024, for the first time in the history of the CAA, airlines were sanctioned for consumer protection-related infractions. It was so undeniable that even the chairman of one of the affected airlines publicly acknowledged that he had researched himself and realised that his and that he was accepting the sanctions on the CAA because what his airline had done was unacceptable.”
