Image of the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection to the NCAA, Michael Achimugu.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has cautioned domestic airlines against misleading passengers on ticket refund timelines, insisting that refunds must be processed within 14 days, not four weeks as some carriers have claimed.

The warning was issued by the NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, in a statement released via his official X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday.

Achimugu emphasised that the 14-day refund rule, as stipulated under Part 19 of the NCAA Regulations (2023), remains in full effect, and no airline has the authority to impose its own refund policy.

“Domestic airlines need to stop telling passengers that their refund process takes four weeks. There can’t be two captains-in-command on an aircraft,” he wrote.
“The NCAA regulations are clear about the timeframe for ticket refunds — it is 14 days. Operators cannot create a different rule in this regard.”

He urged affected passengers to forward any such misleading communications from airlines to the NCAA for investigation through the following email addresses:
michael.achimugu@ncaa.gov.ng, ifueko.abdulmalik@ncaa.gov.ng, and cpd@ncaa.gov.ng.

“We cannot all claim to be working for the improvement of the industry and be duplicating rules in a manner that undermines the Authority and is unfair to passengers,” Achimugu added.

The reminder follows growing passenger complaints about delayed ticket refunds amid flight cancellations and operational disruptions.

In recent months, the NCAA has repeatedly warned that it would sanction any airline that fails to process refunds within the legally mandated period, describing prompt refunds as a “low-hanging fruit” in consumer protection that operators must prioritise.