Baggage delay: CPC may sanction Turkish Airlines

The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) yesterday said it would sanction Turkish Airlines if it failed to comply with its directive on baggage handling.

The sanction on Turkish Airlines, according to the CPC, is coming on the heels of failure by the airline to provide full situation report on the incident that led to complaints bothering on abuse of consumer rights .

In a letter dated January 21,  last year, signed by its Director, Legal Services, Mr. Emmanuel Ataguba, CPC gave Turkish Airlines seven days to comply with its directive or face the full wrath of the law.

The Director-General, CPC, Mrs. Dupe Atoki, said the airline should have realised that the days of impunity when businesses ride roughshod on the rights of consumers are over.

She said: 'Apart from extant laws and regulations in the country, the operations of Turkish Airlines are bound by international standards and practices.

'CPC will not allow any company to mete out to Nigerian consumers treatment that it will not subject consumers anywhere else in the world.'

The director-general insisted that in the present case, regardless of whatever meetings Turkish Airlines claimed it had attended, the onus is on it to respond to CPC, showing clearly, with facts and figures, that it has satisfactorily resolved the complaints of consumer rights abuse leveled against it.

CPC's tough stance is coming on the heels of the lack-lustre approach of Turkish Airlines to complaints about its shoddy treatment of passengers on Turkish Airlines flight TK 623 of Sunday December 20 last year and other subsequent flights, which arrived Abuja from Istanbul during the Yuletide, without the baggage of passengers.

The said passengers, some of who travelled with minors, including those whose destinations were outside Abuja, were allegedly subjected to untold hardships, as they were forced to check the airport in Abuja for their baggage, without any form of support by the airline

Consequently, CPC requested the airline to provide it with a full situation report of the said events, including Turkish Airline's policy on delayed baggage.