NCAA Suspends Three Private Jets Engaged in Commercial Operations

•Aviation minister orders re-evaluation of permit for non-commercial flights

Chinedu Eze

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) yesterday, confirmed that it has suspended three private jets allegedly engaged in commercial activities against the stipulations of their operating permit.

This was just as the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, ordered the re-evaluation of Permit for Non Commercial Flights (PNCF) to stop the abuse of such approval.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by the acting Director General of NCAA, Captain Chris Najomo.

NCAA recalled that last year, the Minister’s attention was drawn to the use of private jets for commercial purposes and he issued marching orders for the cessation of such acts.

Subsequently, in March 2024, the NCAA issued a stern warning to holders of the permit for non- commercial flights (PNCF) against engaging in the carriage of passenger, cargo or mail for hire and reward.

“The Authority had also deployed its officials to monitor activities of private jets at terminals across the airports in Nigeria. As a consequence of this heightened surveillance, no fewer than three private operators have been found to be involved in violation of the annexure provision of their PNCF and Part 9114 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2023.

“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.

All PNCF holder will be required to submit relevant documents to the authority within the next 72 hours, ” Najomo said in the statement.

The regulator stressed that this riot act was also directed at existing Air Operator Certificate (AOC) holders, who utilise aircraft listed on their PNCF for commercial charter operations.

“It must be emphasised that only aircraft listed in the Operation Specifications of the AOC are authorised to be used in the provision of such charter services. 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 into 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”, the Authority said.

NCAA added that it encourages the legitimate players in the aviation industry to report the activity of such unscrupulous elements to the the authority promptly for necessary action.