When Airlines fail. The plight of Nigerian travelers
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By Omolola Olakunri
A few days ago, I had the opportunity to listen to Timi Dakolo vent on his experience with the Royal Air Maroc airline and his misplaced bags.. In the video, he appealed to the Airline to find and return his bags.
From what I was able to gather, Timi’s experience is not an isolated incident. Many travellers shared similar stories in the comments section, highlighting a pattern of luggage mishandling. I am curious to know how Royal Air Maroc will handle this incident, but I am not holding my breath.
Personally, I am not surprised that the Royal Air Maroc is doing this. Some international airlines show real and perceived disparity in treatment, and others will prioritise customers in certain countries over others.
Air Maroc is not doing anything new. It’s just that presently, they are in the spotlight.
The question we should ask ourselves is, are we helping matters? Should charity not begin for us, at home??
We delay domestic flights for so-called ‘operational reasons’. Offering no refunds, no change of ticket, and in some instances, no explanation. Just a silence.
Foreign airlines see what we do to ourselves and file it away. They see the disdain and contempt with which our homegrown Customer Care services treat us, but by some stretch of imagination, we expect the foreigners to treat us better than we treat ourselves. What an irony!
With all the domestic and international delays on our indigenous airlines, none of our airlines has ever offered a refund or voluntarily provided another ticket?
Which of them has ever been made an example of?
Nigeria has not put in place a framework that holds airlines accountable to Nigerian citizens. In the United Kingdom, there’s a platform called the Resolver, which is a great example of Consumer protection mechanisms.
Any member of the public with a dispute with a company can quite literally log in the details, and they do the work for you.
Every financial complaint has an eight week deadline to be resolved, before it goes to a Financial Ombudsman.
When the case is taken up by the Ombudsman, the company or airline has to pay 650 pounds, and this is regardless of if the ruling is in their favour. Many airlines would rather amicably settle disputes than have to pay 650 everytime a disgruntled fliers has a case..
In the UK, if a train is delayed for more than thirty minutes, the commuter is entitled to a fifty percent refund.
Timi Dakolo should not have had to resort to social media. There should have been a framework in place where he could log in.
A portal in place where people can go to, and log their complaints. And in turn, they will hold the airlines accountable.
If NCARs had a policy of a financial penalty for each unresolved complaint, Airlines would have incentives to solve complaints, and sit up. This would mean better service for Nigerians.
Today, July 25, 2025, marks more than 26 days since Timi Dakolo’s luggage went missing on a Royal Air Maroc flight. According to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs), a luggage is deemed permanently and totally lost if not found after 21 days for international flights. As per Part 19 of the NCARs, he is entitled to compensation for lost luggage.
The NCAA mandates airlines to pay $170 for international flights and N10,000 for domestic flights as initial compensation while searching for missing luggage. Given the elapsed time, I would expect Royal Air Maroc to provide a clear update on the status of his luggage or pay the compensation.
I also appeal to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to look into this matter, ensuring Royal Air Maroc adheres to the regulations and provides a resolution to my issue. Any flier, either domestic or international, pays airport taxes, and all rights should be protected. Timi Dakolo’s situation highlights a concerning gap between the Nigerian Civil Aviation regulations NCARs and it’s implementation.
We await to see how this will be resolved.
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Write Affairs was created in June 2024 as an extension of Quintessential Strategies Limited (QSL) to meet the growing demand for expert writing services.