The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), on Wednesday, slammed a nice of N5million on Qatar Airways for violating client rights.
In an announcement on his X deal with (previously Twitter), the Director, Public Affairs and Client Safety of the Authority, Michael Achimugu, disclosed that letters of investigation (LOI) written to the airline over different circumstances could result in additional sanctions if not handled satisfactorily.
In line with Achimugu, NCAA was dedicated to defending the rights of all stakeholders within the nation’s aviation sector.
“Glad to announce that, at the moment, the NCAA has sanctioned Qatar Airways to the tune of 5 million naira as a penalty for client protection-related infractions. As well as, the letters of investigation (LOI) written to the airline over different circumstances could result in additional sanctions if not handled satisfactorily. As all the time, the NCAA is dedicated to defending the rights of all stakeholders,” he stated.
Achimugu had on September 19, 2025, accused the airline of disrespecting Nigerian passengers and the NCAA, including that the Authority deliberate to swing into motion to nip such an perspective within the bud.
In line with him, a member of Qatar Airways cabin crew had claimed that, whereas she was wheeling a passenger throughout boarding for a flight from Lagos to america by way of Doha, a male passenger who was travelling along with his spouse had touched her butt.
Achimugu stated she didn’t report this incident in Lagos however on arrival in Doha, she made an allegation towards this passenger, resulting in his arrest and detention for about eighteen hours.
“Through the interval, his spouse suffered psychological, bodily, and psychological trauma with none type of care. She puzzled how her husband might have dedicated such a despicable infraction on condition that she was with him all through the boarding course of.
“The authorities in Doha made the person pay a hefty nice and compelled him to signal a doc written solely in Arabic! Determined for freedom to proceed on his journey to the US, the passenger signed a doc whose contents he didn’t perceive,” he stated.
Persevering with, Achimugu stated regardless of this, the airline refused to fly him to his last vacation spot, as he had to purchase tickets on one other airline and proceed at nice monetary and reputational value.
“Upon invitation by the NCAA, the airline’s nation supervisor, who has a penchant for evading conferences with the NCAA, solely despatched his subordinates to attend. Nevertheless, the NCAA selected that matter together with others. As has change into typical of @qatarairways, they did not adjust to all determinations produced from that assembly. They’ve additionally did not deal with subsequent complaints from different passengers escalated to them by the CAA, together with a complete silence upon receipt of a Letter of Investigation (LOI) despatched to them by the NCAA,” he added
The NCAA picture maker, who stated this behaviour would cease henceforth, expressed dismay that some international locations shouldn’t have superior aviation client safety laws like Nigeria, including that in sure circumstances, some international locations don’t even have any.
“This creates a scenario the place airways working out of these international locations (largely nationwide carriers) act with disdain in direction of client safety enforcement in Nigeria.
“This isn’t a scenario that we’d settle for right here. It’s towards the regulation for any airline not to reply to the NCAA. It’s towards the regulation to offer false data to the NCAA. It’s towards the regulation to fail to adjust to the provisions of Half 19 of the NCAA Rules 2023.
“When Bilateral Air Providers Agreements (BASAs) are signed, they have to be revered by each events. Each airline is predicted to, upon approval to function in Nigeria, perceive and adjust to client safety laws. To proceed to deal with our legal guidelines with contempt whereas respecting laws throughout Europe and elsewhere just isn’t superb and have to be introduced to an entire and last cease.
“This division protects the airways as a lot because it protects passengers. The DGCA, Captain Chris Najomo, has by no means minced phrases about his place on client safety points, and we are going to apply acceptable and stiff penalties towards the airways that, in perpetuity, fail to conform,” he said.
