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The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has issued a stern warning to Qatar Airways, cautioning the airline against violating its regulations and subjecting Nigerian passengers to unfair treatment.
Michael Achimugu, Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, made the warning public in a post on his X handle on Friday, accusing Qatar Airways of treating both passengers and the NCAA with disdain.
He stressed that the NCAA will not hesitate to impose heavy penalties on any airline that flouts its rules.
According to Achimugu, a recent case involved a Nigerian passenger who was arrested in Doha after a Qatar Airways cabin crew member accused him of inappropriate conduct during boarding in Lagos. Despite serving the penalties imposed in Doha, the passenger was denied onward travel and forced to buy another ticket at significant financial and reputational cost.
The post read, “The airline @qatarairways has carried on as though Nigerian passengers and the NCAA are not deserving of their respect, dignified treatment, and compliance with Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023. This will be brought to a stop immediately.
“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.”
Achimugu further accused Qatar Airways of repeatedly ignoring NCAA directives and avoiding regulatory meetings.
“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 @qatarairways, 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,” he stated.
Achimugu warned that Nigeria will not allow any airline to disregard its aviation laws, stressing that bilateral air service agreements (BASAs) must be respected.
“This is not a situation that we would accept here. It is against the law for any Airline 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.
He added that the NCAA will apply “appropriate and stiff penalties” against airlines that continually disregard Nigerian regulations.
