Calls for aircraft entry review clash with safety concerns

Stakeholders in the aviation industry are asking the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) to review the conditions for granting Air Operating Certifications (AOCs) to new carriers to mitigate the current aircraft shortages in the country.

But they say safety must not be compromised in the course of opening up the sector for new entrants.

According to the stakeholders, the NCAA’s ‘stringent’ conditions, which include size of fleet and age of aircraft, have kept prospective small operators out of the market.

In 2023, the NCAA announced that startup airlines would be required to have a minimum of six airplanes to commence scheduled flight operations.

“It is wrong to put a limit on aircraft age as none of the crashes were attributed to the age of the aircraft,” Olumide Ohunayo, industry analyst and director of research at Zenith Travels, told BusinessDay.

Read also: Aircraft shortages narrow options for passengers on second-tier routes

Ohunayo said if Nigeria must make use of its small airports, then 15 to 30 seater airplanes, most of which would be old but well maintained and meet all safety requirements, should be allowed to operate.

“There is a need for us to open that market up, encourage new investors and have those unviable airports get flights into them and improve revenue for airline players, including government agencies.”

“None of the safety reports indicted any airline because of aircraft age. Recently, we have seen newer planes crash. Once these aircraft can be certified, maintained and spares obtained, then we should go ahead and allow these operators to start. This will improve the aviation ecosystem and mitigate the current aircraft shortage in Nigeria,” he said.

The NCAA is currently being asked to review these policies at a time when only a few aircraft have had to feed several passengers on domestic routes.

” The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has always emphasised that they have the minimum standards that you can operate with to be safe and that has never been an issue for Nigeria to pass. What I found out is that we have raised the bar above what is needed because policy makers lack the knowledge to do the right thing,” Ibrahim Mshelia, CEO, West Link Airlines, told BusinessDay.

He said rather than make stringent laws, the NCAA should look at the environment and cut its coat according to its cloth, adding that in this case, the authority should put out laws that would suit airline operations and businesses.

Mshelia said making airlines provide more than two aircraft would make it expensive for new airlines to start.

In 2021, BusinessDay reported that Nigeria’s aviation industry was experiencing a flurry of activities with new airlines coming up. About 25 prospective operators were in the process of marking their presence in the sky.

The investors were at different stages of acquiring Air Operating Certificates (AOC) for local flight operations from NCAA.

However, apart from NG Eagle and Green Africa, the other 23 prospective airlines are yet to commence flight operations till date.

Read also: Cargo piles as aircraft shortage delays delivery

In response, Michael Achimugu, director, public affairs and consumer protection, NCAA, said by the regulation, airlines are supposed to have six aircraft before they commence operations.

However, he disclosed that the NCAA director general is looking at reviewing the regulations.

“The DG of NCAA is pushing for a review of this regulation from the perspective that the number of aircraft should be commensurate with the number of routes that an aircraft wants to fly.

“When there is competition, airfare will be lower. If, for instance, an airline wants to do Ibadan-Lagos flight only, they don’t need six aircraft to do this. There has to be a regulatory review to allow for these kinds of transactions to happen,” the NCAA director said.

However, John Ojikutu, industry expert and the CEO of Centurion Aviation Security and Safety Consult, said: “What we need to do is to increase the capital (fleet size) or merge to ensure capability, not necessarily capacity. We need to review the economic regulations and grade the airlines with fleet sizes for national, regional, continental and Intercontinental services and operations.”