The Nigerian aviation industry, in the third quarter of 2015, is one that is difficult to assess. In terms of performance, the sector is still where it was – all motion no movement. This is attributed to, perhaps, the delay by President Muhammadu Buhari in constituting his cabinet.

Like every other sector, the aviation industry witnessed a lot of events, some bizarre, laughable or nauseating, while others were unbelievable decisions taken that are capable of drawing the sector backward. The election of Buhari as Nigeria’s president has brought back hope to a beleaguered industry.

The quality of candidates cleared by the Senate has elicited joy among Nigerians that the president has, indeed, picked some of the ‘best’ people to help him bring about good governance. Not that the sector did not record some achievements, but the rot and wanton corruption that pervaded the aviation landscape far outweigh the achievements recorded.

Regulations
Penultimate month, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) organised a three-day workshop in Lagos on the New Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) 2009. It was specifically targeted at airline operators, parastatals in the industry and other stakeholders, for them to understand the rationale behind the revised NCARs, such as the general policies, procedures and definitions of aspects of the new regulations.

The new regulations cover, among others, General Licensing Requirements, ATC License, Flight Crew Licensing, Aero Medical, Cabin Crew Licensing, Approved Training Organisations (ATOs), Aircraft Registration and Marking, Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO), Operations and Air Operator Certification, among others.

Fielding questions from reporters, the Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, said: “Aviation is changing every day and the requirements for safety have become paramount to all of us.

As we move higher to achieve our safety standard and make sure we can have a safe operation, we need enduring safety regulations. This safety regulation is asking for 100 per cent compliance. Things have changed in the industry. In the last two years, you will find out that we have not actually failed. That is the way to do it and that is the way we are going to meet up. We will be looking at various regulations. You must train your people to do maintenance.”

Airlines’ audit
In the aftermath of a crash involving Dana Air last August, Usman directed an immediate and comprehensive audit of all the airlines operating in the country. He said that the pockets of incidents that had occurred recently were being viewed seriously by the authority and the wholesale audit was one of the measures taken to forestall further incidents.

According to him, the audit is to ensure the sustenance of the confidence of air travellers in the industry. Usman said that the directive would forestall complacency among airline operators and ensure that they demonstrate absolute compliance to NCAA’s regulations. There is no doubt that Nigerian airlines are in dire straits.

Most of the carriers are insolvent and at the brink of collapse. Their lack of strong financial muscle makes them to be at risk and expose the sector and life of the travelling public to danger. Some of them are finding it very difficult to meet their financial obligations with backlog of unpaid staff salaries. Paucity of funds may also force these airlines to negate given standards in commercial flight operations, which may lead to air accidents.

Even the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) had, in some of its accident reports, attributed certain crashes to lack of good maintenance of aircraft, just as the reports attributed crashes to pilots/crew errors, which forms about 65 per cent of accidents.
Over the years, many airlines would commence operation, function for some years and go under. In their twilight days, they would be able to offset their huge debts, including workers’ salaries, until they become bankrupt.

Apart from grounding operations of some carriers, NCAA rarely intervenes when airlines fail to carry out their financial obligations. What usually happens was that NCAA would withdraw the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) granted any airline that was unable to take its aircraft for compulsory maintenance checks or the one that was not released by the maintenance organisation, due to its inability to pay its bills.

Airspace violation
Two foreign aircraft Bombardier 700-100 with registration marks G-RBEN Global Express S/N 9083 operated by Gama Aviation of United Kingdom had violated the country’s airspace by illegally operating to the country, leading to the grounding of the airplanes, after the operators paid a civil fine of N7 million to NCAA and $20,000 to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
The operator of G-RBEN aircraft was found operating in Nigeria’s airspace with falsified flight clearance information and conducting illegal domestic flight operations in Nigeria.

Other infractions includedconducting illegal commercial revenue flight operations contrary to conditions contained in Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) Part 10 and security violations. Spokesman for the aviation regulatory body, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said that preliminary investigations revealed that the Embraer 135BJ registration marks XA-MHA was reported to have landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, from London, Farnborough, without any flight clearance on September 10, 2015.
Reports from the Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) indicated that the crew informed them that they possess a ministerial approval for the flight. However, on landing, the crew could not produce any ministerial approval as claimed.

The BD 700-100 is a United Kingdom Air Operators Certificate (AOC) holder and has been carrying out several domestic operations between Abuja and Lagos without the Authority’s permit/ certification in accordance with Nigerian CARs Part 10.

Uncompleted projects
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Hajia Binta Bello, has assured that the Federal Government will complete and deliver five international airport terminals across the country concurrently being remodelled and built to meet international standards at a total cost of $500 million (N100 billion).

The remodelling of the airports located in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu, was conceived by government at the cost of $500 million, including a counterpart funding of $100 million (N20 billion) from government on Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.
Bello, disclosed recently averred that finance was not an impediment to the delivery of all the projects going on simultaneously in the five major states of the country. She said: “We don’t have any financial impediment that would slow down the work that is in progress.
For instance, there is no problem of finance with the five on-going international terminals.” There are fears that the four international airports under construction may not be completed within the time frame except the Federal Government pressurises them to hasten the job in second quarter of next year.

The project has witnessed several delays, which has seriously affected passenger facilitation following congestion at the existing terminals, which were constructed over 30 years ago. Stakeholders who spoke to New Telegraph under the condition of anonymity said that this is not the first time government would give a deadline for same project only for it to remain uncompleted.

A former Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, had before her sack, promised that the projects would be delivered in December 2014, but it never materialised. Shortly after her removal, her successor also promised to deliver the projects before May 29, 2015, all to no avail. Experts have, however, said that there are lots of works to be done by the Chinese builders to bring it to fruition.