By Desire Emmanuel
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Monday, October 13, warned domestic airlines that they cannot give a time frame of four weeks in order to refund passengers of cancelled flights.
The NCAA said this habit of the airlines is in contrast to the rules of the agency which stipulate that passengers of cancelled flights must be refunded within two weeks of the flight that is cancelled.
The position of the NCAA was made by Michael Achimugu, Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection of the agency, saying many passengers had complained to the agency regarding this.
The NCAA said there cannot be two captains in the same ship, alluding to the fact that domestic airlines must comply with the directive of the agency that said refunds must be made within 14 days of the cancelled flights.
He wrote: “The NCAA regulations are clear about the timeframe for ticket refunds, and it is 14 days. Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023 remains in force. Operators cannot create a different rule in this regard.
“To all passengers: if you apply for a refund and an airline tells you that it would take four weeks, kindly forward that communication to us immediately.”
The NCAA said domestic airlines cannot claim to be working for the improvement of the industry and be duplicating rules in a manner that undermines the authority and is unfair to passengers.
