Air travellers may pay more for flights within Nigeria as the Ministry of Aviation said it has developed a new insurance scheme that will protect them.
Stella Oduah, aviation minister, who made this known while presenting the mid-term achievements of her ministry on Thursday, explained that the aim was to further protect air travellers and enhance airline efforts to provide better customer care and services.
He said the introduction of such a scheme will also reduce unnecessary delays in the payment of airline insurance packages.
The new scheme, known as Victim Family Insurance Package (VFAP), she said will give additional assistance to families of victims of aircraft accidents.
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She explained that the approval of National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has been secured for the VFAP.
Discussions, Oduah added, are in progress between Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Zenith Bank on the implementation of the VFAP while family assistance centre is being established to take care of emergencies.
However, passengers would be required to pay a premium of N600 which would be embedded in the ticket.
Meanwhile, Oduah has said that Nigeria will soon introduce Air Marshals aboard its aircraft going and coming from the United States of America (USA).
To this end, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with the US government for the reciprocal deployment of Air Marshals on aircraft.
According to her, this was because both domestic and international terrorism has compelled countries to upgrade security systems and arrangements
In addition, she noted that aviation security has assumed global dimension and there are internationally acceptable standards that must be complied with.
