The Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, has stated that aviation sector regulators will start enforcing the requirement for airlines to compensate passengers for delays or cancellations by January 2024.
The minister revealed this information on Tuesday during his appearance before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Aviation to present and defend the budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
Keyamo also guaranteed that a weekly list of airlines responsible for delayed or cancelled flights would be publicized in the media as part of the compensation initiative.
He said, “I have called the customer’s satisfactory commission regarding the treatment of Nigerians. In fact, I have gone back to the committee , that is how much concern I am concerned.”
“And I have said at the last address that I gave during our stakeholders meeting in lagos and our retreat in Warri. I said on a weekly basis, please publish the list of airlines that they do not fly as at when due, canceled flights, delayed flights, how many hours it was delayed, were there compensation, actions they took as regulator against these airlines. We are starting that in January.”
The aviation minister proposed that a discount should be deducted from the flight tickets of airlines that delayed passengers as part of the compensation.
Keyamo stated, “For every delay, there is a report, an actual report by the regulator , what did they do? Did they pay compensation? And if they didn’t pay compensation we have said that the other way to get compensation if they can return cash is that once the passenger is buying the next ticket it must be given a rebate. That passenger must be given a 50 per cent rebate or 40 per cent rebate because they must be a rebate”.
He added, “Private Partnership must come to the fore. It is not even negotiable, we don’t have the funds to do so.
“In concession , we will give the people what we want , not what they want. We have to decide what we want. It is the nature, the quality of the concession that all of us will agree on.
“We want to go ahead but I want everyone of us to sit down , look for the best hands, we should go to the end of this world to look for the best and the best thing for Nigeria and raise our offer to tier one, not tier two. Tier one investors to come to Nigeria and build our gateway for us.”