THE Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has accused Qatar Airways of persistent disregard for Nigerian passengers and the country’s aviation consumer protection regulations, warning that such practices will no longer be tolerated.
NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, said the airline has repeatedly failed to comply with Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023, despite several complaints lodged by passengers and determinations issued by the authority.
Pointing to recent case involving a Nigerian passenger travelling with his wife from Lagos to the United States (US) via Doha, where a Qatar Airways cabin crew member, without prior report in Lagos, alleged that the passenger inappropriately touched her during boarding, leading to his arrest and 18-hour detention in Doha, during which his wife reportedly endured psychological and physical trauma without care.
The detained passenger was eventually compelled to pay a heavy fine and sign a document written only in Arabic.
Despite this, Qatar Airways allegedly refused to transport him to his final destination, forcing him to buy new tickets at significant financial and reputational cost.
Achimugu also revealed that when summoned, Qatar Airways’ country manager routinely evades NCAA meetings, delegating subordinates instead, as well as failed to act on NCAA’s determinations, ignored passenger complaints escalated by the authority and remained silent after receiving a formal letter of investigation.
According to him: “A member of this airline’s cabin crew claimed that, while she was wheeling a passenger during boarding for a flight from Lagos to the US via Doha, a male passenger who was travelling with his wife had touched her butt.
“She did not report this incident in Lagos. On arrival in Doha, she made an allegation against this passenger, leading to his arrest and detention for about eighteen hours.
“During the period, his wife suffered mental, physical and psychological trauma without any form of care.
“She wondered how her husband could have committed such a despicable infraction given that she was with him throughout the boarding process.
“The authorities in Doha made the man pay a hefty fine and forced him to sign a document written only in Arabic! Desperate for freedom to proceed on his journey to the US, the passenger signed a document whose contents he did not understand.
“Despite this, the airline refused to fly him to his final destination. He had to buy tickets on another airline and proceed at great financial and reputational cost.
“Upon invitation by the NCAA, the airline’s country manager, who has a penchant for evading meetings with the NCAA, only sent his subordinates to attend.
“However, the NCAA made a determination on that matter, along with others. As has become typical of Qatar Airways, they failed to comply with all determinations made from that meeting.
“They have also failed to treat subsequent complaints from other passengers escalated to them by the CAA, including a total silence upon receipt of a Letter of Investigation (LoI) sent to them by the NCAA.
“This behaviour stops now. I understand that some countries do not have advanced aviation consumer protection regulations like Nigeria does. In certain cases, some countries don’t even have any. This creates a situation where airlines operating out of those countries (mostly national carriers) act with disdain towards consumer protection enforcement in Nigeria.
“This is not a situation that we would accept here. It is against the law for ANY Airlines not to respond to the NCAA. It is against the law to provide false information to the NCAA. It is against the law to fail to comply with the provisions of Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023.
“When BASAs are signed, they must be respected by both parties. Every airline is expected to, upon approval to operate in Nigeria, understand and comply with consumer protection regulations.
“To continue to treat our laws with contempt while respecting regulations across Europe and elsewhere is not ideal and must be brought to a complete and final stop.”
He warned that it is unlawful for airlines to ignore NCAA correspondence, provide false information or fail to comply with consumer protection laws, criticising foreign carriers that respect aviation regulators in Europe, but flout Nigerian regulations.
The NCAA spokesperson disclosed that Royal Air Maroc and Saudi Air have been found culpable of similar infractions, vowing that stiff penalties would be applied to offenders, as both airlines have been duly advised, but their failure to comply with NCAA’s directives will attract heavy sanctions.
Achimugu reaffirmed NCAA’s commitment to safeguarding the rights of Nigerian air travellers, noting: “This department protects the airlines, as much as it protects passengers, but we will not allow any carrier to treat our laws with contempt.”
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