After few months of its launch, Ibom Air, was yesterday granted Air Operating Certificate (AOC) by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
This certificate gives the airline the licence to operate commercially within the country.
The management of Ibom Air commended the NCAA for the objective, professional, competent and thorough manner in which it has conducted the certification process thus far.
This is also the airline said its attention had been called to the existence of several misinforming stories and ‘news’ items about us it in the social media space.
“While the airline remains committed to our strategy of allowing our services to speak for us, we believe it is necessary at this point to reassure all well-meaning Akwa Ibomites and Nigerians in general, that Ibom Air is no ‘pie in the sky’ proposition and that we are here to stay and to change the game as Nigerians know it.
“We emphasise that an airline is not a bus service that can just acquire buses and start operating as our detractors seem to think. In any country in the world, a start-up airline like Ibom Air has to go through a painstakingly thorough certification process in order to be given the ‘nod’ to operate,” airline said.
“In the case of Nigeria, this process is overseen by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). Based on our commitment to operate to world-class standards, Ibom Air submitted itself totally to the process. The process in Nigeria, in terms of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations, is designed to take at least 9 months to complete. In the case of Ibom Air, we are pleased to say that we are on course to complete the process under 7 months,” it said.
On publication that its aircraft are Canadian registered, the management said “The only specific matter that Ibom Air will respond to concerning the misinformation out there, is that of the material falsehood that all of our aircraft are Canadian registered.
“Yes, all three aircraft were ferried into Nigeria from Canada on their Canadian registration, which is normal, for insurance purposes. But as soon as they arrived Nigeria, they were deregistered from Canada and assumed their Nigerian registration (5N-BWK, 5N-BWL and 5N-BWM respectively), which they have borne until today. Otherwise, our fleet of Bombardier CRJ 900 aircraft are the youngest fleet of any airline in the country today.”
Ifeoma Okeke
