Author: Wole Shadare

The Federal Government has concluded plans to upgrade the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) by expanding its functions, which would be similar to that of America’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).  Consequently, AIB’s function would encompass investigation of rail, maritime and road accidents but would be domiciled in the aviation, New Telegraph has learnt. Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this on the side line of a forum put together by aviation think tank,…

Chief Executive Officers of the aviation agencies comprising Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) held a close door meeting with President, International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Dr. Olumuyiwa Aliu who was briefly in Nigeria at the weekend. The talk centered around how the country could leverage on the position of the Nigerian as President…

The first Airbus A319neo performed its maiden flight today, The smallest member of the A320neo Family, powered by CFM International LEAP-1A  engines took off from Hamburg and landed in Toulouse after a five hour flight. It was piloted by Experimental test pilots Michel Gagneux and Eckard Hausser. They were assisted in the cockpit by Test-Flight Engineer Jean Michel Pin, while two flight test engineers Sylvie Loisel-Labaste and David O’nions directed the flight from the aircraft’s…

Despite desperate motives of some mischievous elements in the society to ridicule the efforts of the government to rehabilitate ailing Arik Airline, which recently came under receivership due to gross mismanagement and heavy debt profile, the management of the airline has reiterated the fact that it would continue to pay priority attention to safety, which Arik is known for.   This is coming as the new management has ordered more aircraft spares, which it said…

  *Carriers owe NCAA N2.5b     The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said its final ultimatum to airlines to automate their remittance of the statutory five per cent Ticket Sales/Cargo Sales Charge (TSC/CSC) ends tomorrow. Airlines risk N500, 000 fine if they fail to comply with the aviation regulatory directive, according to spokesman for NCAA, Sam Adurogboye.   Adurogboye told Woleshadare.net that the idea was to bring transparency to the system by ensuring that…

 Economic recession, coupled with shortage of dollars, high costs and scarce fuel supplies has created a storm in the aviation industry, reports WOLE SHADARE     Nigerian airline business has come a long way and has faced a lot of challenges for survival. For now, the country has eight airlines operating scheduled flights. They are Aero Contractors, Dana, Arik, Overland, Azman, FirstNation, Air Peace and Medview. In spite of the seeming growth of the sector,…

Stops flight taking 100 immigrants home Up to twelve activists broke through security at Stanstead Airport late yesterday night chained themselves together on the runway to stop failed asylum seekers being deported. The left-wing activists were trying to stop a flight taking up to 100 immigrants back to Nigeria and Ghana.     The runway was closed at about 8pm resulting in eight flights being diverted to other London airports. But by 9.30pm the airport was running as…