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The interim management of Nigeria Air has explained why the proposed new manairline had not been able to take delivery of any aircraft required for its operations.
Speaking at the headquarters of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority after receiving an Air Transport Licence for Nigeria Air, the Chief Executive of the airline’s management, Capt. Dapo Olumide said that COVID-19 has made it very difficult for them to get the aircraft.
The situation, he said is not peculiar to Nigeria as the global aviation sector has also been affected by COVID.
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Capt Olumide received the licence on behalf of the proposed new airline, saying efforts were ongoing to get all the aircrafts.
This, he added, was a basic requirement by the NCAA before the issuance of another vital certificate for operations.
The ATL with number NCAA/ATR1/ATL214, which was presented to the airline, was signed by the Director-General, NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, and would run for a period of five years from June 3, 2022 to June 2, 2027.
In his words, “The aircraft are available but there are all sorts of issues because this is summer peak period. And as you know, post-COVID, all the aircraft were parked in the desert. The airlines are bringing them out slowly. It takes time to bring an aircraft out of storage.
“And there is a further complication, a lot of flights in Europe are being cancelled or delayed because most people were laid off during the COVID and they don’t have enough staff in the airports to turn around flights. So there are lots of cancellations going on.
“So it is very difficult to get the aircraft but we have discussions going on with Original Equipment Manufacturers and we are just waiting for the right terms of the agreement. We already have the aircraft identified because that is one of the requirements for the NCAA, but we are just trying to perfect titles and so on.
“The airline is still sourcing aircraft, stressing that the national carrier was in a Public-Private Partnership process with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission based on the approval of the Federal Executive Council.
“So we have to comply with the terms of proposals. So the sourcing is still in progress,” he stated.
The NCAA boss described the ATL as a big step required by Nigeria Air in its pursuit towards commercial flight services.
“The ATL process is a step and one of the certificates required towards schedule passenger operations and it is a big step forward in the processing of the Air Operator Certificate which is presently ongoing,” noted Nuhu.
“Once all the requirements are made and we are happy with the compliance with all our regulatory requirements and applicable standards, they would be issued an AOC,” he stressed.
An Air Transport Licence is issued as authorisation to airlines to provide scheduled and non-scheduled services.
It is one of the licences received by airlines before they can commence operations just as they await the all-important Air Operator Certificate that fully guarantees them the right to begin air services.
The issuance of an ATL to Nigeria Air on Monday came four years after the branding and livery of the new airline was unveiled by the Federal Government during the Farnborough Air Show in July 2018 in London.
Since then, there had been several efforts and promises by the Federal Government to get the airline functional, as the airline’s boss insisted on Monday that the national carrier was making progress, based on the presentation of an ATL to the airline by the NCAA.
However, in his response to an enquiry on the airplanes needed for airline’s operations, Olumide stated that it had been tough to get them.
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