… Says the processing of AOC for Nigeria Air is ongoing
The management of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has called on the industry stakeholders and the general public to always seek clarifications from it before forming their opinions or go out with wrong information on its operations.
The appeal was made by the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the CAA Capt Musa Nuhu during a chat with aviation journalists recently.
Nuhu said it is by seeking clarifications and getting the right information any stakeholder could make valid statements about operations or workings of the aviation agency.
“I want to appeal to some of the industry analysts or stakeholders to come to us before making any public comments. When they hear stories or something, they can come to us and seek clarifications, rather than go out there and make wild comments, which aggravate the system. I read a lot in different platforms daily and sometimes, it is annoying when some certain people who are respected members of the industry and are supposed to be the conduit for the industry, make false comments for whatever reasons without seeking NCAA clarifications,” the Director General said.
He said going out to publicize fake information about the industry does nothing but great damage to the industry.
We are open and ready to answer questions from the public. I expect people to seek clarifications. When you don’t seek clarifications and you go and make statements that are contrary, you are only making more problems for the industry,”Nuhu cautioned.
The Chief regulator however used the occasion to shed lights on some issues in the industry.
On the roles of NCAA and Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) in the aviation industry, Nuhu said FCCPC has its functions which is quite different from that of NCAA in especially when it comes to issues of interference on fares charge by airlines.
“FCCPC has its own functions, which are different from that of NCAA. FCCPC deals with consumer protection and NCAA deals with air transport regulations, which I think still deals with the issue of airfares.
“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.
“It is not an unfettered deregulation that they can do as they like, there are guidelines to that in our regulations,” he explained.
Also on the issue of granting multiple destinations to foreign airlines operating into the country, the Director General explained that policy is a product of Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASA) Nigeria has with other countries. He affirmed that NCAA is not responsible for the formulation of the policy. Though he agreed that NCAA usually makes inputs during its deliberations, but the final decision rests with the Ministry of Aviation.
“Unfortunately NCAA is not the one responsible for BASA negotiations to airlines. It is a policy issue and this 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.
On the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air and the status of its Air Operator Certificate (AOC), the director General who took his time to explain some of the major processes to be taken by NCAA, airlines and others stakeholders in the certification process is completed said: “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.
Also on extension of AOC for some operating airlines, Nuhu explained, “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.
He insisted, “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.
“Before the extension completes, their renewal is given. People just talk without seeking clarifications. So, we look at the situations, give them extension while we continue to work to complete the renewal process.”
Confirming that renewal of AOC s not automatic, he explained that it is procedure to be followed to ensure that no gap is left opened.
“It is a process with steps, which must be completed,” he asserted..
The Director General clarified that an operator has a window of a 90 day maximum for extension for an AOC.
“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.
