The Director-General of Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mr. Babatunde Irukera has challenged indigenous airlines to be more responsive to the expectations of air passengers.
Irukera who made this call while addressing journalists during the 22ndAnnual Seminar & Awards of League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) over the weekend in Lagos, said regardless of all challenges facing the sector, the airlines should measure their responsiveness and sensitivity indexes with respect to their consumers.
He lamented that most of the domestic operators don’t have the appropriate mechanism for people to call in and have complaints resolved.
Irukera said he recently held a meeting with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in pursuit of collaboration towards addressing consumer issues in the industry.
“One thing that I thought happened at that meeting was that it was a frank conversation and while I got a lot to understand the deficits that constitute challenges to them, they also got to understand the soft infrastructure issues. Ultimately, the consumer issues are primarily soft infrastructure issues. Airport and the airside or the terminal side, the experiences are vital to consumer experiences also.
“Even if you have the best airports, but there are poor responsiveness, then consumers will still be displeased. And 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 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.
