ABUJA – The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) says it is initiating maximum enforcement action against Kenya Airways for a large number of consumer protection infraction.

The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Mr Michael Achimugu NCAA, said on his X handle that the action will go through due process as the authority’s legal department have been put on notice.

This is coming against the backdrop of the recent incident regarding a passenger, Gloria Omisore, who boarded a Kenya Airways flight from Lagos to the UK without a France transit visa, after a 17 hours layover in Nairobi, she was later told to endure additional 10 hours.

According to Achimugu, Omisore must have had a traumatic experience as she was bleeding and had informed the airline staff that she was bleeding and needed care and a bath but the airline staff poorly handled the issue.

According to the NCAA Director, the Kenya Airways Country Manager in Nigeria, James Nganga had apologised for the Gloria Omisore incident, however, some of the directives by the regulatory authority to rectify the incident haf not been fulfilled by the airline.

Specifically, the NCAA had put the facts of the matter to the airline and rejected the misleading official statement put out by them.

“The determination was for the airline to update its initial statement to reflect the facts of the case. There has been no compliance. Rather, the original statement that obfuscated facts, in all of its royal ‘misleading-ness’, has been allowed to grow wings and fly.

“Take the blog post by one Charles Onyango-Obbo for instance. The writer still asserts that Gloria Omisore blatantly refused the offer to fly to London. This lie is being told despite the admission of Nganga, that the passenger only became frustrated when the 10-hour wait attached to that offer did not come with accommodation.

“This was a bleeding woman who had already experienced the inconvenience of a 17-hour layover. She needed to clean up, possibly have a bathe. If the airline was not going to provide the care, its staff could have handled the matter professionally.

“The airline admits that they should never have boarded the passenger from Lagos. The airline failed to discover the lack of a France transit visa and flew this passenger to Nairobi where she had a 17-hour layover, only to be told that she would have to endure a further 10-hour wait if she must be flown to the UK.

“Passenger then asks to be provided care for that 10-hour period as she is bleeding and needs to bathe. The actions of the airline staff following her request were down to poor passenger handling. Gloria Omisore was not an unruly passenger on the first leg of the flight, nor was she rude on the Lagos-Nairobi flight.”

“In the viral video, the airline’s staff could be heard hurling insults and raising her voice in response to the infuriated passenger.”

Achimugu said that Nganga had admitted during the meeting, that the staff’s behaviour was against airline policy.

According to him, the blogger also claimed that the meeting between my team and the airline held in Lagos. Simple research would have told him that the NCAA HQ is in Abuja.

“The NCAA gave the airline an opportunity to fix what was wrong. The airline has failed to do so.

“Earlier, the airline asked for an extension of one hour, after which they still failed to comply with the determination of the CAA.

“On Thursday, in a separate issue, the airline failed to send in a compliance report about a scheduled flight that was delayed for seven hours with no compensation for the passengers.

“When confronted over a phone call, the Kenya Airways team claimed ignorance of the NCAA Regulations. We are sending them a copy of it.

“But, how can you operate in a foreign country with no recourse to the relevant regulations? How is this different from those who claimed that Omisore should have known the travel documents she needed for her trip?,” Achimugo said in the post on X.

He further said that as a result, the NCAA will be organising a retreat for all airlines operating in Nigeria to learn and relearn Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations 2023.

Other long-ignored cases read out to the KQ team that attended the meeting, the CAA is dismayed by the actions of this airline.

Cases of refunds not paid, lost baggage not compensated for despite admitting to losing them, and failure to honour commitments.