06-08-2018, 08:00 PM
[img=323x0]http://s23069.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/airport-departure.jpg[/img]For sometime now, the country’s aviation sector has recorded many instances of passengers who felt aggrieved that the services some airlines provided for them were not enough and decided to take laws into their hands.
Some of such passengers who perhaps forgot that airline business was managed in line with international standard practices, rules and regulations, had chosen to throw caution to the winds to do the unthinkable at the airport
Agreed that the incidents of passengers going on rampage whenever they felt they were not getting value for their money had been in existence, but the contradiction is manifested in their total ignorance of what the law says when a passenger found himself in that condition.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had come up with a bill it called Passengers’ bill of rights which enables an aggrieved passenger to lodge his complaints to the authority when he/she feels cheated by an airline.
The second part of this bill is that the law also enables an airline that is unnecessarily harassed by a passenger to seek for justice.
Unfortunately, in most cases, such passengers often ignore the simple rules by resulting to self help once there is any crisis forgetting that they can be liable for such actions.
In the aviation parlance, a passenger taking laws into his/her own hands when not satisfied with the services of an airline or any aviation agency is accused of committing an “air rage.”
Air rage is described as unruly or violent behavior of a passenger, caused probably by physiological and/or psychological stresses associated with air travel or when a passenger becomes unruly, angry, or violent on an aircraft during a flight.
The height of the indiscipline is that many of these passengers fight over issues that have to do with safety and natural phenomena; for how on earth will a passenger be pressuring an airline to take off under an inclement weather because he/she is so much in a hurry to get to a destination?
According to information gathered, this had happened to one or two of the domestic airlines when they had to delay their flights due to bad weather report from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) which did not go down with some passengers who subsequently unleash havoc on their staff at the airport.
This has become a major occurrence at the country’s airports where passengers mount pressure on airlines to take off or land in a dangerous situation and when the airline insist on standard practices, such passengers then react with shameful behaviour.
This act of indiscipline is not even exempting the so called ‘big fishes’ in the society who believe because they are above the law that they can even order an already airborne flight to return and pick them up.
The irony is that these same Nigerian passengers dare not say a word when they experience such situations onboard or on ground in foreign countries, forgetting that aviation issues are not played based on local pedestals.
The airlines too have their own faults as some of them in many cases attempt to trample on the rights of passengers by refusing to be transparent when there are issues, forgetting that passengers deserve to be given adequate value for their money.
It is on record that some airlines are notorious for late departures and unnecessary flight cancellations due to lack of aircraft or in an attempt to have enough load factor before taking off.
All still the same, the rules of the game should be followed because of the sensitivity and global importance of the airports. In other words, airports and aircraft are not like a market place or motor garage where a genuine or fake aggrieved passenger can begin to flex muscles.
At a point, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) attempted to strengthen the international legal framework to ensure that governments across the world have the necessary legal tools to be able to take action against unruly passengers.
The time has come for the aviation authorities in Nigeria led by the NCAA to seriously look into this menace by prevailing on the National Assembly who the required body to come up with concrete penalties that would be meted out to unruly passengers either at the airport or onboard flights.
http://www.tribuneonlineng.com/amp/taming-unruly-passengers-at-nigerian-airports/
Some of such passengers who perhaps forgot that airline business was managed in line with international standard practices, rules and regulations, had chosen to throw caution to the winds to do the unthinkable at the airport
Agreed that the incidents of passengers going on rampage whenever they felt they were not getting value for their money had been in existence, but the contradiction is manifested in their total ignorance of what the law says when a passenger found himself in that condition.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had come up with a bill it called Passengers’ bill of rights which enables an aggrieved passenger to lodge his complaints to the authority when he/she feels cheated by an airline.
The second part of this bill is that the law also enables an airline that is unnecessarily harassed by a passenger to seek for justice.
Unfortunately, in most cases, such passengers often ignore the simple rules by resulting to self help once there is any crisis forgetting that they can be liable for such actions.
In the aviation parlance, a passenger taking laws into his/her own hands when not satisfied with the services of an airline or any aviation agency is accused of committing an “air rage.”
Air rage is described as unruly or violent behavior of a passenger, caused probably by physiological and/or psychological stresses associated with air travel or when a passenger becomes unruly, angry, or violent on an aircraft during a flight.
The height of the indiscipline is that many of these passengers fight over issues that have to do with safety and natural phenomena; for how on earth will a passenger be pressuring an airline to take off under an inclement weather because he/she is so much in a hurry to get to a destination?
According to information gathered, this had happened to one or two of the domestic airlines when they had to delay their flights due to bad weather report from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) which did not go down with some passengers who subsequently unleash havoc on their staff at the airport.
This has become a major occurrence at the country’s airports where passengers mount pressure on airlines to take off or land in a dangerous situation and when the airline insist on standard practices, such passengers then react with shameful behaviour.
This act of indiscipline is not even exempting the so called ‘big fishes’ in the society who believe because they are above the law that they can even order an already airborne flight to return and pick them up.
The irony is that these same Nigerian passengers dare not say a word when they experience such situations onboard or on ground in foreign countries, forgetting that aviation issues are not played based on local pedestals.
The airlines too have their own faults as some of them in many cases attempt to trample on the rights of passengers by refusing to be transparent when there are issues, forgetting that passengers deserve to be given adequate value for their money.
It is on record that some airlines are notorious for late departures and unnecessary flight cancellations due to lack of aircraft or in an attempt to have enough load factor before taking off.
All still the same, the rules of the game should be followed because of the sensitivity and global importance of the airports. In other words, airports and aircraft are not like a market place or motor garage where a genuine or fake aggrieved passenger can begin to flex muscles.
At a point, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) attempted to strengthen the international legal framework to ensure that governments across the world have the necessary legal tools to be able to take action against unruly passengers.
The time has come for the aviation authorities in Nigeria led by the NCAA to seriously look into this menace by prevailing on the National Assembly who the required body to come up with concrete penalties that would be meted out to unruly passengers either at the airport or onboard flights.
http://www.tribuneonlineng.com/amp/taming-unruly-passengers-at-nigerian-airports/