To Avert Disruptions, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority Extends Recertification Deadline for Airlines

Chinedu Eze

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has given reason why it did not ground airlines undergoing safety checks for the renewal of Air Operator Certificate (AOC).

NCAA said the reason was to avert the disruption of their operations.

The regulatory authority said if it had grounded airlines undergoing safety audit for such recertification, flight operations would be disrupted and that would affect economic activities in the country.

The explanation was given by the Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, who stated that although AOC always had expiration date but this could be extended to airlines undergoing through the process of renewing their AON.

NCAA also said there are 10 active domestic airlines in Nigeria, which renew their AOC every two years, but despite the number of airlines, there is still under capacity, which has contributed to high fares. 

“So if NCAA grounds airlines that are undergoing through the process of renewing their AON, it can affect three or more airlines at the same time, which means that this number of airlines could be grounded and their operations stopped,” Nuhu said.

According to Nuhu, this would further deepen the under capacity, which would give rise to increase in airfares, increased flight delay and also more flight cancellations. This would also lead to withdrawal of flight service to some destinations, which many persons who wish to travel might not be able to do so.

“To renew AOC, there are certain conditions and processes that must be completed. If for whatever reason, either from the operator or the NCAA, we cannot complete those processes before the expiration of the AOC, we will extend it for them (the airlines).

“Extension is for the system to continue to ensure that all regulatory requirements are complied with for the renewal. Sometimes for some reasons, some operators are not able to meet certain requirements on time or may be on our own part, we cannot complete the process, then, we say instead of disrupting the system, we give them extension for that period so that they can continue their operations,” the Director General said.

He further explained that before the extension date, the airlines usually get their renewal and he clarified that NCAA usually reviews the situation, give the airlines extension, while it continues to work to complete the renewal process. 

“Renewal is not automatic. It is a process with steps, which must be completed. The most we have given, if I am not mistaken is 90 days, but usually, it is hardly more than 30 days. We do this thing so that the system will keep functioning. You can imagine if we are unable to complete the process either on the part of the airline or NCAA, we now ground one or two airlines, can you imagine the chaos that we will have in the industry?

“So, people need to understand, rather than the blanket condemnation without clarifications on what the actual issue is and why we are doing what we do. It is the same people that will turn around and insult us if we don’t renew the AOC of a particular airline. Whatever you do, head or tail, you lose,” he said.

The Director General also spoke on the increase in airfares by the airlines and said that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has its own functions, which were different from that of NCAA and explained that FCCPC deals with consumer protection and NCAA deals with air transport regulation, “which I think, still deals with the issue of airfares.”

According to him, “All airlines are supposed at the beginning of each year to file their airfares to NCAA and most of the airlines do that. However, during the year, if the airfares are going to be higher than the ones filed before the NCAA, the airline is supposed to notify NCAA. Then, we will do our reasonableness check and if we are good with it, we tell them to go ahead, but if not, we will tell them no; so this is an unfettered deregulation that they can do as they like, there are guidelines to that in our regulations.” 

The Director General was referring to the increase in airfares by domestic airlines, which they explained they did in response to the sudden increase in the cost of aviation fuel, which rose by over 200 per cent from late February to early March, this year. 

Captain Nuhu also clarified that NCAA was not involved in the multidesignation of foreign airlines, noting that it lies under the Ministry of Aviation.

“Unfortunately NCAA is not the one responsible for Bilateral Air Service agreement (BASA) negotiations to airlines. It is a policy issue and it is led by the Ministry. NCAA makes its own contributions, but the final decision is by the Ministry. So, anyone that blames NCAA for that is either out of lack of understanding of how BASA negotiations work for Nigeria; and every country has its own peculiarity on how they do BASA. In Nigeria, it is the Ministry.”

He also said that the new national carrier, Nigeria Air, has started the process of obtaining AOC. He however said he could not ascertain when they would obtain the certification.

“The only thing I can tell you is that the promoters of that airline have applied and their AOC is ongoing. I don’t have any assurances of when the licenses would be. You see, when you apply for AOC or any certification, some issues that are not completely under the purview of NCAA like seeking security clearance for the applicant, security agents do that. I don’t have a control over security agencies to give such clearances. They have applied and it is ongoing, we are waiting for security clearance,” Nuhu said.