The Ministry of Aviation has kicked against the attempt to prevent the Skypower Express Airways as a charter operator for the ongoing hajj exercise to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON).
The ministry insisted that Skypower Express as a Nigerian carrier had met all the necessary provisions, rules and regulations of the country and deserved to be allowed to benefit from charters, ad hoc flights, just like Flynas, a charter operator from Saudi Arabia and any other interested charter operator around the world.
Reports obtained over the weekend, queried the statutory power of NAHCON, which granted it right to stop a charter operator like Skypower from the annual exercise to the holy land.
One of the letters, dated August 9, 2019 and signed by Legal Adviser/ Aviation, Liman for Permanent Secretary and assigned to the Chairman, NAHCON, insisted that the commission lacked the power to unilaterally exclude a carrier for the hajj exercise without liaising with appropriate government authorities before coordinating hajj and umrah activities.
The correspondence declared that NAHCON did not liaise with the ministry on its circulars banning airlines on charter operations during hajj operation.
It insisted that all issues of civil authority in Nigeria was superintendent by the ministry of aviation as the aeronautical authority of Nigeria, noting that the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) agreed by the ministry between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was misrepresented in the commission’s letter.
Liman in the letter insisted that cheater services were not discriminated by the BASA operational between the two countries, rather, it subjected the same to the approval of the contracting parties’ aeronautical authorities.
The letter added: “The decision whether or not Skypower Express or nay airline operators/companies of Nigeria should or can operate charter flight to Saudi is not for the commission to take as it is clearly beyond its mandate.”
IFEOMA OKEKE
