Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has hinted that the nation may witness the takeoff of a new national carrier before end of year.
Director General, Capt. Usman Mukhar, of the agency who gave the indication said the December 24. Scheduled for the proposed takeoff of the airline is still achievable.
Usman said if promoters of the project are properly guided to follow through with regulatory requirements, the process of getting an Air Operators Certificate (AOC) only takes 90 days.
Usman assured that with that timeline in mind, the possibility of national carrier scaling through is quite feasible.
The DG also stated that government decided to involve aviation agencies in the presidential taskforce because they want the national carrier project to succeed.
He said: “The presence of the agencies inside the task force is to ensure that the right things are done, they are not midwifing in the real sense of the national carrier but they are guiding the process to ensure that it is done in line with the international standards and best practices in the area of safety, security and also comfort of the passengers”.
Emphasising government’s readiness for the national carrier, Usman said: “This time around, government says we should go and ensure that even before take-off that nothing is short-circuited, process followed so that they can come, start and stay. The same service we have rendered to every operator that came from the time the operator came at the first phase, coming with the intent that they want to start operating, it is one of the stages in the issuance of the Air Operators Certificate, to the time somebody want to do formal application”.
He added that NCAA also guides operators when it comes to documentation and preparations of the manual, which they produce, stressing that if there were errors and corrections to be made, NCAA works to see that everything came out clean.
He stated that the NCAA extends these services to all the operators because they came through the five stages of obtaining an AOC.
He said it was the same process for all the operators and that there was no special treatment given to any operator.
He, however, said for the national carrier, the government wants to make sure that it was done properly.
Capt. Usman said as far as NCAA is concerned, the December target is feasible because the process of obtaining the AOC and the permit could take a minimum of 90 days.