A Three-Day Ultimatum Issued By NCAA For Review Of Private Aircraft Operators' licenceses
In order to sanitise the general aviation segment of local aviation, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Nigeria, yesterday, have issued a three-day ultimatum for all private operators and holders of non-commercial flight permits to submit for a re-evaluation.
The directive memo, signed by the Acting Director-General of the CAA, Capt. Chris Najomo, follows just after the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, threatened to go after illegal charter operators.
It should be recalled that a Hawker800 aircraft, conveying the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, his aides, and friends, crash-landed in Ibadan last year. According to the accident investigation report by the National Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), the aircraft operated by Flints Aero Services Limited, had a Permit for Non-commercial Flight (PNCF), and therefore operated the minister’s hire-and-reward flight illegally.
Najomo pointed out that the use of private jets for commercial purposes had gotten the attention of the minister in 2023, who issued marching orders for the cessation of such acts.
Similarly, the apex regulatory body, CAA, last month, had issued a warning to holders of the PNCF, against engaging in the carriage of passenger, cargo, or mail for hire-and-reward.
The DG said the Authority had also deployed its officials to monitor the activities of private jets at terminals across the airports in Nigeria. Because of the surveillance, he noted that, no fewer than three private operators were found to be involved in violation of the annexure provision of their PNCF and Part 9114 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2023.
He said, “In line with our zero tolerance for violation of regulations, the Authority has suspended the PNCF of these operators.
“To further sanitise the general aviation sector, I have directed that a re-evaluation of all holders of PNCF be carried out on or before the 19th of April 2024 to ascertain compliance with regulatory requirements."
By the directive, all PNCF holders are expected to submit relevant documents to the authority within the next 72 hours.
The riot act is also directed at existing Air Operator Certificate (AOC) holders, who utilise aircraft listed on their PNCF for commercial charter operations.
Najomo insisted that only aircraft listed in the Operation Specifications of the AOC are authorised to be used in the provision of such charter services.
He said, “Any of those AOC holders, who wish to use the aircraft for charter operations must apply to the NCAA to delist the affected aircraft from the PNCF and include it in the AOC operations specification.
“NCAA wishes to reiterate to the travelling public not to patronise any airline charter operator who does not hold a valid Air Operators Certificate issued by the NCAA when they wish to procure charter operations services."