Victor Ezeja
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has explained why the country lost the United States aviation Category One status.
Reacting to some reports of purported ban of Nigerian airlines by the US, the NCAA acting Director General, Capt. Chris Najomo, in a statement on Monday, 2nd September, said Nigeria lost the CAT 1 status assigned by the US Federal Aviation Authority (USFAA) because no indigenous airline had operated directly to the country for two years.
Najomo explained that to operate into the US, Nigeria like most countries must satisfactorily pass the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) Programme and attain CAT 1 status.
“Upon attaining this status, Nigerian airlines would be permitted to operate Nigerian registered aircraft and dry-leased foreign registered aircraft into the United States, in line with the existing Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA),” he stated.
NCAA acting DG noted that the first time Nigeria attained Category One Status was in August 2010, but lost it in September 2022 following a new rule by the USFAA which stipulated that any country on CAT1 with no indigenous airline operating directly to the US after a two-year period is delisted.
“Also removed from the Category One list were countries who the FAA was not providing technical assistance to based on identified areas of non-compliance to international standards for safety oversight,” Najomo stated.
“No Nigerian operator has provided service into the United States using a Nigerian registered aircraft within the 2-year period preceding September, 2022 so it was expected that Nigeria would be de-listed as were other countries who fell within this category.
“Nigeria was, therefore, de-listed since 2022 and was duly informed of this action in 2022.”
The NCAA boss, however, clarified that the delisting of Nigeria has nothing to do with any safety or security issues in the country’s aviation system.
“Nigeria has undergone comprehensive ICAO Safety and Security Audits and recorded no Significant Safety Concern (SSC) or Significant Security Concern (SSeC) respectively,” he clarified.
The removal of Nigeria from the CAT1 status means that no indigenous airline, including those planning to begin direct flights from the country, cannot operate directly to any airport in the US until the country is re-audited and re-certified by the USFAA.
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However, the NCAA boss said Nigerian operators can still operate into the U.S. using an aircraft wet-leased from a country that is currently on the Category One status.
He stressed that it was the quest to address such a challenge that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, upon assumption of office, began to make efforts to empower indigenous airline operators to access the dry-lease market around the world. That, he said, resulted in the visit to Airbus in France earlier this year and the MOU signed with Boeing in Seattle, Washington last week.
He assured that with the efforts of the Minister and other stakeholders in the industry, Nigeria would not only regain but sustain its U.S. Category One status.
The recertification is a process that involves airport security audit, airport facilitation, airline audit and the type of aircraft to be used for the operations to the US by the designated airlines.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
