Why we allowed Aero Contractors to resume flight services
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has explained why it gave Aero Contractors the approval to resume flight services four months after the airline voluntarily suspended flight services.
The regulatory agency also said that it is working with all operators to ensure seamless travel in the coming weeks as air travellers prepare for the yuletide season.
Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director-General of NCAA stated this on Thursday in an interview with aviation journalists.
According to Nuhu, NCAA gave the approval for Aero Contractors to return to service after fulfilling all the financial issues it was facing in its operations.
According to him the airline has also signed a Memorandum of Understnading (MoU) with the regulatory agency on the payment of its outstanding 5 per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC).
Nuhu reiterated that the airline was not grounded by the regulatory agency and it never had safety issues, rather, the carrier was faced with financial challenges, which if not quickly nipped in the bud, may degenerate to safety issues.
He emphasised that during its audit of the airline, it discovered minor issues with its operations, which he said had been addressed by the airline’s management.
He said: “Aero Contractors was not grounded based on safety issues, we did an audit of them because whatever audit you do, you have findings and they were all minor findings. There was no Level 1, 2, 3 findings. They were very insignificant. We notified them. We audited them and we found out that the issue they had was finance sustainability.
“Aviation is safety sensitive and whenever you have financial difficulty, it is just a matter of time, you will not be able to comply with all the regulatory requirements and some may start cutting corners. So, before financial issue becomes safety issue, we had a discussion with them and they on their own before we took any action, agreed with our findings and suspended their operations to enable them reorganise and get some funding to get more equipment.
“That is what they have done, we sat with them, they submitted, we asked for projection, which they did, we reviewed. The first one wasn’t good enough, they had to go and review it and it was quite satisfactory. We had an MoU with them for payment of outstanding 5 per cent on Ticket Sales Charge (TSC). So, they are fine. As far as we are concerned, they can resume operations.”
Nuhu also said that the NCAA was intensifying compliance to safety rules and recommended practises through the monitoring of all organisations, including the airlines.
He, however, regretted the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the operations of the airlines, which he said put the airlines and other operators in the industry in a more precarious position.
Besides, Nuhu decried the foreign exchange and Jet A1 challenges bedeviling the industry, stressing that these further put the industry on the edge.
On flight delays and cancellations, which are prevalent during the yuletide season, Nuhu explained that NCAA was working with all operators to ensure hitch-free during the period.
He, however, said that flight delays and cancellations could be caused by myriads of challenges, including inclement weather condition.
He said: “Flight cancellations can come from many reasons. I am not making excuses for any operator; sometimes, you have technical problem, weather and other disruptions that affect the flight schedules and sometimes, the airlines too, their planning is not the best. So, we work with everybody.
“It is not just the airlines; the airlines are part of the eco-system in the airport. Whenever we have the yuletide, we are going to have surge in passenger traffic that may be beyond the terminal capacity.
“That one also has an impact on the departure of an airline. Sometimes, the handlers are overloaded because of the loads. It will have an impact on the plan of the airline. So, we are doing our best to mitigate the challenges.”
