Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has affirmed that Chanchangi Airways remained grounded till date and not in operations in the country as far as it is operational guidelines are concerned.
This came on the heels of a news report published recently in a section of the media.
Refuting the story, General Manager, Public Affairs at NCAA, Sam Adurogboye, in a release made available to African Business Travel News (ABTN) stated that there is no controversy at all concerning the Air Operators Certificate (AOC) of CHANCHANGI Airways and that the airline is not carrying out any form of operations within the industry.
“The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) wishes to state that there is no controversy at all concerning the Air Operators Certificate (AOC) of CHANCHANGI Airways.
“At present and quite evidently CHANCHANGI Airways is not carrying out any form of operation. In order words everything concerning the Airline have been archived,” the statement said.
Citing the relevant sections of the NCAA regulations which rendered an AOC not in use for certain numbers of days and reasons invalid, the statement said:
“According to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) 2015, Part 9.1.1.12(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, no AOC holder may conduct a kind of operation for which it holds authority in its operations specifications unless the AOC holder has conducted that kind of operation within the preceding number of consecutive calendar days specified in this paragraph:
- For scheduled operations- 30 days.
- For non – scheduled operations- 90 days except that if the AOC holder has authority to conduct scheduled operations, and has conducted scheduled operations within the previous 30 days, this paragraph does not apply.”
The regulatory authority which stated that the validity of an AOC is more important than obtaining it, explained that what determines the operation of an airline in the country is the validity of it operational specifications. NCAA therefore reaffirmed that since the airline is not operational for its specifications over a period of time, it is considered nonexistent.
“In other words it is not obtaining the AOC that is the most important, what defines an airline is the validity of its operational specifications.
“Therefore since the airline in question is not operational it is curious where the controversy is arising from. The airline got the AOC when it was operating a Boeing 737 for cargo operations. At the expiration of the mandatory number of days for initial operation as specified in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NigCARs) the sanction was automatically activated and the airline has been grounded”.
It affirmed, “The airline has remained grounded till date. Their aircraft was leased by another airline and is at present unserviceable due to lack of maintenance”.
