The minister, who said his ministry has started sanctioning some airlines who default on consumer rights, however, urged passengers not to be unruly at airports
The Nigerian government has said airline operators in the country must refund the full cost of travel tickets to passengers after a two-hour delay.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, made this known on Thursday at the weekly State House Briefing in Aso Villa, Abuja.
He read some of the rights of aviation passengers at the briefing and charged them to demand their rights whenever they are being trampled upon by airlines.
He said, “On domestic flights, delay beyond one hour, carrier should provide refreshment, and one telephone call, or one SMS, or one e-mail. They should send you an SMS or email or call you to say, ‘I am sorry, I am delaying for one hour’.
“Delay for two hours and beyond, the carrier shall reimburse passengers the full volume of their tickets.
“Delay between 10pm and 4am, carrier shall provide hotel accommodation, refreshment, meal, two free calls, SMS, email and transport to-and-fro airport.”
The minister, who said his ministry has started sanctioning some airlines who default on consumer rights, however, urged passengers not to be unruly at airports
A data released by NACA show that in the first quarter of this year, 2021, out of the 14,662 domestic flights operated in the country, 7,554 were delayed.
Also, 562 flights were delayed out of the 1,871 international flights operated out of the country. Nine international and 149 domestic flights were cancelled.
Currently, there are nine domestic airlines operating scheduled flights in the country, as 19 airlines operate international flights in and out of Nigeria, according to the NCAA data.