Chairman of Aviation Round Table (ART), Capt. Dele Ore, has said that should Nigeria fail to retain the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category 1 Certification obtained in September 2010, Arik Air that flies to the United States would lose greatly.
Ore stated this while reacting to the removal of the director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, before the March 31, 2014 commencement of the re-assessment of Nigeria’s CAT 1 status by FAA.
“If we lose FAA Category 1 status, we would only lose Arik Air that flies directly to the United States while Delta and United airlines, two U. S. carriers will stop flying to Nigeria. I am more concerned about the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) because of Dr. Bernard Aliu, who is preaching one thing and in Nigeria we are preaching a different thing,” he said.
He stated that the recent development in the aviation industry further confirmed ART’s earlier position that the NCAA director general’s position is only tenured on paper and not in practice.
“Nigeria should be more concerned with what ICAO will say than whether the FAA will query the sudden removal of the NCAA boss based on the fact that the current president of ICAO Council, Dr. Bernard Aliu is a Nigerian. While the position of the NCAA director general is tenured as prescribed by ICAO and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Act, the federal government is singing a different tune,” he added.
On his part, the president of National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), Mr. Isaac Balami said though the federal government could hire and fire its staff, international aviation bodies especially ICAO, where a Nigerian is the president were monitoring the development and the way Nigeria’s aviation system operates.
He stated that though the former director general was not fingered in any misconduct the government should have allowed him to coordinate the FAA audit before relieving him of his appointment.
“If I had my way, I would have allowed him to finish the FAA category one audit and if found to have done something wrong, then I can remove him. But the only good thing is that the man replacing him is also an industry person,” said Balami.
