The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has urged airline operators to improve their communication with passengers.

The NCAA Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, reiterated the need for a seamless communication between airline operators and their passengers averting further disaster at the domestic wing of the Abuja airport on Thursday.

“The NCAA has regularly advised operators about the need to improve their communication with passengers, especially in this disruption-prone month of December,” Achimugu wrote in a post on his official X handle.

“To avert further disaster at the domestic wing of the Abuja airport, my team and I needed to rush down to the terminal where I addressed the over one hundred passengers scheduled to fly Abuja-Owerri via United Nigeria Airline.

“On receipt of reports about the chaos, we investigated and confirmed that the aircraft had experienced a bird strike, leading to a cancellation of the flight.”

Speaking further, Achimugu said passengers became irate, and, some of them, violent, with one of them destroying laptops belonging to the airline, assaulting their staff, and inflicting injury on a FAAN AVSEC personnel.

The NCAA director said the fact is that: the airline did not provide timely information to the passengers.

He explained that he had to address the passengers and help them understand why they could not fly today, and the possible remedies.

“For the lack of timely and proper communication, the airline has agreed to give the passengers 15% compensation on their next flight while rescheduling their Owerri-bound travel to 10am tomorrow,” Achimugu said.

“We have instructed that an email to that effect be sent to the passengers latest, 4pm today. While taking questions from the obviously aggravated but now, calm passengers, we did not deny the fault of the airline, even though the disruption was due force majeure.

“Had the airline personnel addressed the customers in a transparent, timely manner, the chaos would have been averted.

Having successfully handled this situation and restoring order at the terminal, Achimugu said that the NCAA will monitor United Nigeria’s compliance with the regulations until their customers have safely been brought to their destination.