The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has explained why the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) delisted Nigeria from its Category One Status.
A statement by the Acting Director-General, Chris Najomo, attributed reasons for the removal of Nigeria from the US category one status to the fact that no airline from Nigeria was providing flight services to the American country at the moment.
The last airline that operated to the US from Nigeria was Arik Air on February 3, 2017. Arik Air was operating to New York before the suspension.
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The statement from the NCAA revealed that from September,2022, the US FAA delisted Category One countries that, after a two-year period, had no indigenous operator providing service to the U.S. or carrying the airline code of a U.S operator.
Also removed from the Category One list were countries, which the FAA was not providing technical assistance to based on identified areas of non-compliance to international standards for safety oversight.
Najomo insisted that the delisting of Nigeria had nothing to do with any safety or security deficiency in the country’s oversight system.
According to the statement: “No Nigerian operator has provided service into the United States using a Nigerian registered aircraft within the two-year period preceding September, 2022 so it was expected that Nigeria would be delisted as were other countries who fell within this category. Nigeria was, therefore, delisted in 2022 and was duly informed of this action in 2022.
“It is important to clarify here that the delisting of Nigeria has absolutely nothing to do with any safety or security deficiency in our oversight system. Nigeria has undergone comprehensive International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Safety and Security Audits and recorded no Significant Safety Concern (SSC) or Significant Security Concern (SSeC), respectively.”
The statement reiterated that a Nigerian operator could still operate into the U.S., using an aircraft wet-leased from a country with a current Category One status.
Najomo declared that the NCAA continued to adhere strictly to international safety and security standards and respects the sovereignty of states, including the United States of America, as enshrined in Article One of the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
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This provision, Najomo said, gave states complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above their territories.
He pointed out that in full realisation of this situation, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo had embarked on an aggressive international campaign to empower the local operators to access the dry-lease market around the world, which culminated in the visit to Airbus in France earlier this year and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently signed with Boeing in Seattle, Washington, recently.
The NCAA DG added that Keyamo had also done a lot of work to make Nigeria comply fully with the Cape Town Convention, which would bring back the confidence of international lessors in the Nigerian aviation market.
“We are confident that with these steps of the Honourable Minister, it is only a matter of time that Nigeria, not only regains, but can sustain its U.S. Category One status,” he added.
