The number of private and charter jets operating in the country is currently down by 46% as a result of government scrutiny and the current economic downturn, BusinessDay’s findings show.
According to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) records for between 2015 and 2016, out of 67 jets which were registered with NCAA, 31 have been de-registered, indicating that the aircraft were either sold off or returned to their owners abroad.
The remaining 36 private jets currently registered in the country comprise of 18 state-owned aircraft and 18 private and company- owned ones.
“Expectedly, the number of charter and private jets registered in the country will reduce because a lot of people who own business jets are people known to have had highly-placed friends in previous governments, yet with little verifiable means of livelihood,” Dung Pam, chairman, Governing Board of the Nigerian Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI) told BusinessDay.
It would be recalled that soon after the Buhari administration came to power, there was a massive anti-corruption campaign, which saw the confiscation of properties and hard currencies traced to suspected corrupt officials and their cronies. Some of the suspects gladly gave up the assets, denying owenership, rather than risk prosecution and possible conviction.
Pam said that because the operators do not want those jets to be under the supervision of the NCAA, a lot of those jets were registered outside Nigeria and not on the Nigerian registry, but they were being flown as private jets in the country.
“We observed that as soon as Muhammadu Buhari took over as president of Nigeria, close to 30percent of those jets could no longer be found in the country. The operators took them to other countries where they registered and kept them for safe keeping.
“A few jets that are private are those belonging to Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma and Aliko Dangote but what other people who bought jets were doing was that they were using them for charter and commercial purposes,” Pam said.
He further disclosed that the perpetrators were hiding under a part of the regulation called part G, which allows people to bring in private jets and fly them without the NCAA really carrying much oversight, adding that all they did was obtain a temporary certification from the NCAA, to enable them operate in the country.
The NCAA’s regulation on NCAR’s Part8.2.1.9 however states that, “No person shall operate a foreign-registered aircraft in general aviation in Nigeria, except in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Flight Operations Clearance Certificate (FOCC) and the Maintenance Clearance Certificate (MCC) issued by the authority and in force in respect of that aircraft.”
Pam says this is no longer the case, as the NCAA had to step up its vigilance and surveillance because what was tolerated in the old administration is no longer acceptable under the new administration.
BusinessDay checks show that some of the private jets in the country were registered in South Africa, Isle of Man and Bermuda, where they are exempted from tax, since they are registered to be flown for private use.
A source close to the sector, who craved anonymity ,told BusinessDay that a lot of private and charter jet operators put some of the jets up for sale, while others who were under investigation quickly took the jets out of the country, as soon as Muhammadu Buhari was announced winner of the last election.
“One of the major reasons why operators register jets outside Nigeria is because of the unscrupulous nature of a lot of the Nigerian operators who charge high insurance premiums.
“In addition to this, many Nigerian operators once in a while, default in paying their lease agreements. So, rather than paying one month ahead, they ask them to pay six months ahead because they don’t trust them. This forces operators to register them outside Nigeria. Also, the resale value if it is registered in Nigeria is very low, compared to when it is registered in other countries,” the source added.
Segun Demuren, managing director of Evergreen Apple Nigeria Limited, a private charter terminal operator and aircraft maintenance centre, said the circumstances surrounding the probe of certain public officials over the use of charter jets should not be used to jeopardise their business and not send the signal that it is wrong for government officials to hire business jets.
Nurudeen Abdulkareem, Rector of the Ilorin International Aviation College, who hinged the current dwindling number of private jets in the country on the economic recession, noted that moving an aircraft out because of the recession is a wise decision.
Abdulkareem says if operators cannot thrive in their business, it is better they move somewhere with brighter prospects, instead of incurring unsustainable overhead debts.
IFEOMA OKEKE
