…..attributes Arik’s exit from the international routes to fall in traffic
…..three airlines sanctioned for violation of CPR
Passenger traffic on both the domestic and international routes inbound and outbound for 2017 fell as compared to 2016.
Statistics released by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA has revealed that in 2017 passenger inbound traffic on the domestic routes was 3,780,576 while outbound was 3,865,499 in 2016 the traffic of inbound and outbound was 4,024,387 and 4,171,191 respectively.
In 2017, inbound passenger traffic was 1,750,184, outbound 1,825,358, in 2016 inbound was 1,952,657, outbound was 2,011,705.
This decrease in passenger traffic of 2017 also affected the numbers of complaints and number of flights operated for the year received by the Consumer Protection Directorate of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA.
According to the statistics released in 2017 number of flights were 13,503 on international routes and on domestic routes 48,319 while in 2016, on international routes it was 15,465, domestic 54,682.
Passengers complaint was 200 on international and 78 on domestic routes. Number of airlines on the international route was 30 while domestic was 8.
Director, CDP, NCAA Mallam Adamu Abdullahi said the drastic reduction in passenger traffic, complaints was due to the exit of Arik air from the international routes and the streamlining of its domestic operations after it’s take over by the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCOM.
“One of the major players in the international scene which is Arik air stopped international operations after the were taken over by AMCOM in 2016, throughout 2017, they did not operate international flights, that is why there was a drastic drop in the number. They also curtailed their domestic operations and a lot of their operations did not really take place and the number of flights they had going to their destinations really dropped, that is what led to these droppings even in the number of passengers that were carried”.
The CPD Director noted that of all the complaints received over 132 cases were resolved while the pending ones were still being worked on.
Abdullahi explained that during the period under review three airlines were sanctioned for the violation of the consumer protection regulations of the NCAA, two foreign airlines and a local airline.
He said the airlines were sanctioned for “failure/refusal to implement directives issued by the Authority on protection of consumer interest which attracts N2 million penalty and for being discourteous to passengers which attracts a minimum of N20,000″
The regulations are very clear, when you do something wrong, there is a sanction attached to it, even a simple thing as being discourteaous to passengers the regulations clear spelt what the airlines are suppose to pay, these sanctions are broken down to minimum, moderate and maximum and even passengers have sanctions drawn from the minimu, moderate and maximum, therefore if an airline staff is discourteaous to a passenger for instance, a minimum sanction of N50,000 applies, modetare of N100,000 and maximum of N200,000.00 and if you can prove that that has happened and find the airline liable and it has to pay that sanction. the airline we are talking about in the long run paid N20 million to the NCAA” he added.
Mallam Adamu Abdullahi stressed that the reason for sanctions was not to witch-hunt any airline but to put airlines on the right path to serve the passengers well.
“As much as we possible in CPD we have been running away in sanctioning an airline because we believe sanction is not a way of improving services. The way to improving service really is to show both the airline and passenger why t a wrong is done make amends and in the long run it ends up in a handshake, we like that when it does, it mean there may not be a recurrence and when there is no recurrence, it means you have really succeeded in doing your job. Yes, it has happened, we have had to sanctioned an airline because when we ruled that this is the way that issue was going to be resolved and reached an agreement with both the airline and passenger, the airline refused on what it is suppose to do and in the long run we had to sanction that airline. Airlines know that when they renege on promises , they know we have the big stick and we weild it but we dont make noise about it”.
