The Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu said at a press conference in Lagos, southwestern Nigeria, that financially distressed airlines will be stopped from operating.
“NCAA will not permit any airline that is not financially sound to continue to operate,” Akinkuotu said.
He said NCAA has enough power to intervene and to look at economic viability of the airlines.
Akinkuoto said while the agency does not intend to kill airlines or stifle their growth, as a regulator it will ensure that only financially sound airlines operate in the interest of safety.
Akinkuotu, who spoke at the NCAA headquarters in Lagos disclosed that all Nigerian airlines will also be required to go through an IATA Operational Safety Audit, also known as IOSA audit.
An IOSA programme is an evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. It is a programme designed by the International Air Transport Association, IATA.
“Airlines will be required to have IOSA audit as we go forward and ensure that their audit is tidy,” Akinkuotu said.
He said he will address the issue of airlines interlining in the near future. But experts say as a regulator, NCAA does not have that power.
Interlining, also known as interline ticketing is a voluntary commercial agreement between individuals airlines to handle passengers travelling on itineraries that require multiple airlines.
Akinkuotu also debunked reports by some NCAA staff that the agency is broke. An aircraft inspector had told the media that the agency is broke and training has dwindled in the agency.
But Akinkuotu said the agency is financially buoyant.
“The NCAA is not broke. As I speak, there’s a group of young people in training in Manchester. There is nobody who is supposed to go to training who has not gone for training. NCAA has a huge budget for training. People go for training almost everywhere,” he said.
NCAA DG said the incident involving an IRS plane at the Kaduna airport on Sunday was not very serious even though passengers had to disembark on the runway and firefighters and other emergency teams were on standby.
He said information given to the media was not correct and called on journalists to cross check information before going to press.
“This briefing has become necessary, even after our press statement yesterday, explaining the circumstances that necessitated the aircraft landing on the runway, because of the misrepresentation of facts on the incident in some sections of the press,” Akinkuotu said.
“For the purpose of reinforcement, we wish to restate that the affected F100 aircraft operated by IRS Airline, Reg. No. 5N-HIR landed safely at the Kaduna Airport, following a hydraulic alert in the cockpit while on final approach at the airport,” he said.
Akinkuotu said he is willing to use his 40-year experience in the aviation industry to train Nigerian journalists on how to report aviation stories.
However, when a journalist asked the chairman and chief executive officer of IRS airline, Rabiu Isyaku Rabiu, how many aircraft he has in its fleet and when he last paid his staff, Akinkuotu said the airline boss should not answer because he was invited as a guest.
He said Rabiu will provide the answer after the press conference. However, after the press conference ended Rabiu passed through the back door and left.
Reports say IRS airline has only one aircraft and has not paid some staff for several months.
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