Nigerian airlines lack appropriate feedback mechanisms – CPC

Babatunde Irukera, the director general of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has said that the domestic carriers have no appropriate mechanism for people to call in and have complaints resolved.

Irukera who made the observation at the 22nd annual seminar of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in Lagos recently said, “one thing is that they don’t even have the appropriate mechanism for people to call in and have complaints resolved. Airport and the airside or the terminal side experiences are vital even if you have the best airports but there is poor responsiveness”.

“Airline industry is one place where you can easily satisfy consumers. Nobody wants to fly when it is unsafe to fly, so if there is a delay for a legitimate safety reasons, consumers will actually appreciate that. But what needs to happen is that first, those delays have to be for legitimate reasons and your responsiveness and sensitivity to the issues must be such that you are upfront, you provide the information and then you provide options or find a way to mitigate whatever the inconveniences that consumers will be experiencing,” he explained.

In addition to these, he suggested that in working with the sector regulator, it is going to be important to truly provide the kind of 360 degree protection that is required. “I am also grateful that the sector regulator has agreed to work with us and has invited me to their meeting and we had an opportunity to jointly confront the airlines, so I think that is a good thing,” he added.

He explained that consumer issues are primarily soft infrastructure issues and that consumers will still be displeased if there are poor response mechanisms even in the best airport.

He said he had a collaborative parley with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the airlines on how to address consumer issues in the aviation sub-sector where the airlines complained about infrastructure challenges as well as regulatory bottlenecks.

On the value added tax (VAT) waiver for airlines, Irukera said it will benefit the consumers from the pricing stand point.

“When I look at it from the consumer stand point, it means it is going to translate into a better experience for consumers, fairer pricing for the consumer, I am all in support of it. So I don’t look at things from a tax stand point, which is more from a business stand point. But if that trickles all the way to benefit consumers, both from a service stand point and a pricing stand point then I think it is an excellent idea,” he said.

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