Nigerian aviation authorities suspend the licences of three private jet operators over abuse of permits

NIGERIA Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) officials have has suspended the licences of three private jet operators over the abuse of their permits after they were found guilty of engaging in commercial operations they were not authorised to carry out.

Last year, aviation minister Festus Keyamo has highlighted a menace on the industry whereby operators who received licences strictly for private use, began to use their aircraft for commercial activities. He then ordered the cancellation of permits for all non-commercial flights (PNCF) engaging in the carriage of passengers, cargo or mail for hire and reward and the NCAA has now acted on this.

NCAA acting director general, Captain Chris Najomo, said the agency has directed that a re-evaluation of all holders of PNCF be carried out on or before April 19 to ascertain compliance with regulatory requirements. He reiterated that only aircraft listed in the operation specifications of the air operator certificate (AOC) are authorised to be used in the provision of such charter services.

Captain Najomo said: “The authority has deployed its officials to monitor activities of private jets at terminals across the airports in Nigeria. As a consequence of this heightened surveillance, no fewer than three private operators have been found to be involved in violation of the annexure provision of their PNCF and Part 9114 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2023.

“In line with our zero tolerance for violation of regulations, the authority has suspended the PNCF of these operators. To further sanitise the general aviation sector, I have directed that a re-evaluation of all holders of PNCF be carried out on or before the 19th of April 2024 to ascertain compliance with regulatory requirements.

“All PNCF holder will be required to submit relevant documents to the authority within the next 72 hours. This riot act is also directed at existing AOC holders, who utilise aircraft listed on their PNCF for commercial charter operations.”

“It must be emphasised that only aircraft listed in the operation specifications of the AOC are authorised to be used in the provision of such charter services. Any of those AOC holders who wish to use the aircraft for charter operations must apply to the NCAA to delist the affected aircraft from the PNCF and include it into the AOC operations specification.

“NCAA wishes to reiterate to the travelling public not to patronise any airline charter operator who does not hold a valid air operators certificate issued by the NCAA, when they wish to procure charter operations services. Finally, NCAA encourages the legitimate players in the aviation industry to report the activity of such unscrupulous elements to the authority promptly for necessary action.”