The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has insisted that it would continue to ensure strict compliance to the issuance and renewal of all Air Operators Certificate (AOC) to only qualified applicants.
The Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, gave this warning with aviation correspondents in Lagos on Monday.
The DG was responding to a purported allegation by the Chief Operating Officer, Tropical Artic Logistics (TAL), Mr Femi Adeniji, during which he made several allegations and accusations against NCAA on AOC’s issuance and renewal.
Nuhu said despite the allegation against NCAA, the authority would not compromise the enforcement of the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) on issuance and renewal of all AOC.
The director-general added that this was one of the main reasons the country had attained FAA IASA Category 1 in the first instance.
Musa noted that the regulatory body would not relent to operate within its mandate to the safe, secure and efficiency of the industry as enshrined in the 2006 Civil Aviation Act.
He said on the issue of non-renewal of TAL’s AOC by NCAA, the company fell short in meeting the requirements for the renewal the AOC as it currently does not have three out of four key nominated post holders.
The director-general said the missing key personnel include the Director of Maintenance, Director of Flight Operations and Chief Pilot.
Musa noted that in addition the operator was yet to comply with COVID-19 Industry Restart Program like all other industry players did before receiving approval to resume operations.
According to him, the company’s AOC will be renewed when these requirements have been satisfactorily met.
The DG further stated the five Phase AOC process (both initial and renewal) was not peculiar to the country as it was an International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) requirement.
“This is contained in the ICAO Annex Six, Parts I and III and ICAO Document 8335 which is captured in Nig.CARS 2015 Part 9 on AOC Certification.
“These strict regulations are to ensure only qualified applicants are granted AOC. This is one of the main reasons Nigeria attained FAA IASA Category 1 in the first instance.
“Nig.CARS 2015 was established with the participation and consultation of all industry stakeholders and must be complied with to the full extent.
“Until such a time there is a review of the regulations. This is the reason for name Nigerian Civil Regulations (Nig.CARS) rather than NCAA Regulations,” he said.
The DG, however, accepted that NCAA was not a perfect entity and had its own peculiar challenges and difficulties like all organizations, though there was always room for improvement.
Nuhu noted that one major challenge was that of manual processes in the authority that could be cumbersome, inefficient and difficult and management had recognised those shortcomings.
He added that it had also developed plans to digitise its documentation and automate its internal for processes not only for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness but most importantly to deal with the rapid growth of the domestic industry.
The NCAA boss said the plan amongst other included the acquisition of Safety Oversight Management System (currently in procurement) which forms the backbone of several CAAs.
He noted that the implementation of this system was expected to start in the 4th quarter of this year.
Nuhu noted that NCAA was ready and willing to work with all parties to resolve any challenge or difficulty they might face as it had already done with many.
