The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) says there are plans to launch a consumer protection portal to address complaints within the aviation sector.
Michael Achimugu, director of public affairs and consumer protection at the NCAA, said on Friday that the portal is expected to be launched in August.
He also said the aim of the project will allow passengers to log complaints, track the on-time performance of airlines, and access self-reported data on the resolution of cases, making airline performance data publicly accessible and transparent.
“Our consumer protection portal is ready for deployment. We are currently training our officers. It will go live in August,” Achimugu said.
“The portal will enable the collection of flight operations data real-time-on-time and complaints filling and resolution.
“Invariably, the public will be able to see in real-time, each airline’s performance as regards flight operations (timeliness) and complaints handling and resolution (customer experience).”
In January, Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, said the ministry would start publishing delayed or cancelled flights by domestic airlines.
The minister said airlines cannot be sanctioned by suspending their operations.
Shedding light on the minister’s promise, Achimugu said the consumer portal will encourage transparency and accountability of airlines.
“As for naming and shaming, it was always going to be better to have a transparent and incontestable system where customer experience and real-time data would be the reporting system,” he said.
“Our consumer protection portal ensures that the performance of each airline reports itself for such scrutiny.”
Achimugu also said there would be fairness in the evaluation of consumers’ complaints.
