IOSA Benchmarks Safety Standard as United Nigeria Gets Certification

Chinedu Eze

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reiterated the importance of an airline being in the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry, saying that it benchmarks the operator’s safety standard.

The international body therefore encouraged Nigerian airlines to strive to be in the IOSA registry to further boost the standard of their operations.

IATA made this known when United Nigeria Airlines (UNA) recently unveiled its IOSA certificate at its head office in Lagos and promised to sustain its safety level, just as it plans to expand its operations to regional and international routes.

The Area Manager/Head of Account Management, West and Central Africa, IATA, Dr. Samson Fatokun at the presentation of the IOSA certificate to the new Nigerian carrier, said that it was necessary for the country’s airlines, especially the scheduled operators to be on the IOSA registry·

He said it was necessary because obtaining the IOSA certification follows stringent process and any airline in the IOSA registry must have attained high standard of safety and it has also been confirmed that rate of accident is very low among airlines that are in IOSA registry globally.

Fatokun also remarked that IOSA was not competing with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in entrenching safety in the industry, but rather collaborating with the regulatory body to improve safe operations in the sector.

He commended Nigerian airlines and disclosed that already, there are six Nigerian scheduled operators on the IOSA registry, making Nigeria the only country on the African continent with such high number of operators on its registry.

He further encouraged other operators to join the IOSA registry in order to further boost safety in their operations, maintaining that IATA would help the operators improve their safety standard.

Chief Operating Officer (COO), UNA, Mazi Osita Okonkwo, said it took the airline six months to complete the process.

According to Okonkwo, the exercise was a rigorous one, but said the airline remained undaunted about the challenge and encouraged other indigenous carriers to take a cue from the airline.

He emphasised that the IOSA registration was one of the steps the airline intends to take to further expand its operations on the regional routes.

“This thing is about safety and adherence to safety standards. It doesn’t mean that you are different from others. The reward for hard work is more hard work. This certificate will keep us awake and ready. We now have certified benchmark that we are working towards. More or less, you can say that we are now more alive to the responsibilities of operations. Any advantage or benefit that is available for us, we are going to explore them,” Okonkwo said.