The Federal Government has said that airlines operating in Nigeria will start paying compensations to passengers for delayed and cancelled flights from January 2024.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, made this known on Tuesday.
Keyamo disclosed this during a session with the Joint National Assembly Committee on Aviation, where he defended his ministry’s 2024 Budget.
He said a comprehensive list of airlines responsible for delayed or cancelled flights would be regularly published in the media as part of the compensation initiative.
He said: “I have called the customer’s satisfaction commission regarding the treatment of Nigerians.
“I have returned to the committee.
“That is how concerned I am.
“And I have said that in 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 do not fly as and when due, cancelled flights, delayed flights, how many hours it was delayed, was there compensation, and actions they took as regulators against these airlines.
“We are starting that in January.”
Keyamo said one way to achieve this was to deduct the money from the payment for flight tickets of airlines responsible for such delays and cancellations.
He said: “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’t return cash is that once the passenger buys the next ticket, it must be given a rebate.
“The minister said that passengers must be given a 50 percent rebate or 40 percent rebate because there must be a rebate.”
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said it had become obvious that developing the nation’s airports requires a partnership by the government with the private sector.
Keyamo said: “Public-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.
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“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 to sit down, look for the best hands, and 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.
“We want Tier one investors to come to Nigeria and build our gateway for us.”
