Reps want airline operators to respect passengers’ rights, privileges

The House of Representatives on Wednesday mandated its Committee on Aviation to liaise with relevant airline operators in the country and ensure that passengers’ rights and privileges were respected.
The directive is sequel to a motion by Hon. Yusuf Tajudeen on the “Need to Address Flagrant Abuse of Passengers’ Rights by Nigerian Airline Operators”.
Moving the motion, Tajudeen explained that there had been consistent disregard and outright violation of passengers’ rights by local airline operators.
According to him, many of these airlines, while meting out ill-treatment on passengers, do not adhere to the terms and conditions of their contracts.
Tajudeen said: “These anomalies which range from flight delays, penalty for missed flights, discriminatory charges, flight cancellation and more, are not in line with global practices in the aviation industry.
“Besides passengers not getting value for their fares, some airline operators devise shady and questionable measures through which basic welfare entitlement of customers are denied.”
Tajudeen expressed worry that the unwholesome practices by airline operators were portraying Nigeria in bad light to foreigners who patronised local airlines.
He pointed out that due to failure of regulatory agencies, airline operators continually offered unsatisfactory services and treated passengers with disrespect.
After contributions, the lawmakers unanimously adopted the motion when it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker,  Yakubu Dogara.