The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has decried the shabby treatment meted out to Nigerian passengers despite paying highest air fares in Africa more than any other country.
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection of the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, stated this at a meeting with the management team of RwandAir over prolonged/delayed refund allegations levelled against the airline by many Nigerian passengers.
Daily Trust reports that the investigation of RwandAir is the latest in the series of the probe that the NCAA would institute against some African carriers.
Recently, Kenya Airways was in the news over the maltreatment of a Nigerian passenger for which the airline later apologised.
In the case of RwandAir, the NCAA’s Consumer Protection Department summoned its officials over rising complaints of maltreatment of passengers.
Achimugu during the meeting complained of the airline staff’s unprofessionalism, which according to him, was evident in the manner of their approach.
Achimugu said, “Nigerians are paying a humongous amount of money for travels compared to all other African countries, so they deserve better. We are not unaware of the discourtesy of some of your staff, but it is funny because it is customer relations.
“The etiquette by which some of your staff members relate is horrible. Even the way your staff was speaking in the video is disjointed and not professional, but we will get to that later because we spent a better part of last year advising airlines on professionalism in their customer relations. Your passenger handling needs to improve. Nigerians can’t be paying the kind of fees they are paying and then get treated this way.
“Our job, God knows, is not to regulate you out of business, but passengers are kings in the industry; if they don’t exist, then you and I won’t exist in this industry. I know that the thinking for many airlines is that passengers don’t have too many choices – even if they complain, they will still come back to fly because they need to fly. But the truth is we have seen many great airlines go extinct; maybe they had thought it was not possible. Never think it is not possible.”
