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The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has warned travel agents against failing to include passengers’ contact details when booking flights, saying the practice often leads to confusion and complaints during flight delays or cancellations.
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at the NCAA, Michael Achimugu, gave the warning in a post on X on Thursday.
He advised passengers to make sure their email addresses and phone numbers are properly entered when flights are booked through travel agents.
According to Achimugu, many cases where passengers say they did not receive delay or cancellation notices are linked to travel agents who do not provide the passenger’s contact details to airlines at the time of booking.
He said airlines usually send notifications about delays or cancellations, but travel agents often fail to pass the information on to their clients, leading to problems at airports.
Achimugu wrote, “Always ask your travel agent to provide your email and mobile numbers when booking your flights. A lot of “I did not receive any notification from the airline” complaints are because most travel agents do not supply the passenger’s contacts when booking the flight.
“When the emails for delays/cancellations are sent, the agents mostly fail to forward them to their clients (passengers), and then chaos erupts at the airport.”
Achimugu said the NCAA will take action against agents who fail to enter passengers’ details correctly, noting that the practice is one of the main causes of disputes between passengers and airlines.
“Going forward, the Authority will come down hard on agents who fail to fill in the passenger’s details when booking their flights. This is one of the biggest causes of conflict between passengers and airlines. Agents MUST fill in the contact details of their clients to enable them to receive important notifications, especially about delays and cancellations,” he added.
He also advised travellers to use licensed travel agents, recommending those certified by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) or affiliated with the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA).
“If you must use a travel agent for your flight bookings, please use a properly licensed agent. Be sure that they are IATA certified or, at least, members/affiliates of NANTA,” he added.
“We must mitigate the inconveniences caused to unsuspecting passengers by their agents and also cut the airlines some slack for situations not caused by them.”
