CTC Practice Direction: Expert seeks tougher sanction, AOC seizure for violators

• Lists gain for airlines, lauds Minister

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has been told to go beyond the Cape Town Practice Direction signing by following up with the slapping of heavy fines on violators.

The Chief Executive Officer of Belujane Consult and a former spokesman for liquidated Nigeria Airways, Mr. Chris Azu Aligbe commended the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo for restoring Nigeria’s reputation on aircraft lease and a single move that could help the aviation sector to grow.

He recommended that the aviation regulatory body Nigeria must complete this great thing they have done by sanctioning violators by making them lose their Air Operator Certificate (AOC) for a certain number of years to serve as deterrence.

His words, “For me, it is good and very positive but to complete it, violators must be made to lose their AOC for a certain number of years to be a deterrent to anybody trying to violate it. It is important to know that even if you have a case with any lessor, they can take the aircraft and you can still go to court .”

The Cape Town Convention Practice Direction was Thursday last week by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho.

With the signing of the CTC Practice Direction, the Cape Town Convention becomes actively and fully operational in Nigeria, thereby reducing the cost of insurance for airlines, restoring investors’ confidence in the nation’s aviation sector and enabling domestic airline operators to dry lease aircraft among others.

Aligbe, while speaking to Aviation Metric said the import of it is that they have successfully brought in the judiciary into so that whenever any such case of seizing aircraft belonging to the lessor by any airline operator goes to court, they will throw the case out.

He said, “The confidence they are trying to give to the international community and leasing community is that Nigerian courts will no longer entertain any such case intended to block the deregistration of the aircraft  and almost makes it mandatory that whenever there is a default, they get their aircraft back.”

Describing the step taken by the government as very crucial, he said the Cape Town Convention was signed and domesticated and it is dependent on Nigerian operators taking absolute responsibility by obeying the convention.

“What has happened is that Nigerian operators, especially two operators (names withheld) have shown that they cannot be trusted. So, they must take that level of responsibility and that is why they violated the Convention. What has now happened is that any time they take you to court, the court will throw it out. You don’t need to seize their aircraft here. You can go to court to seek restitution if you think they have violated the agreement you have with them. “ he added.

He further explained that the CTC Practice direction would help to eliminate the repossession insurance conundrum Nigerian airline operators go through whenever they are forced to lease aircraft which came as a result of the bad reputation the carriers have had with lessors over the years.

Aligbe further hinted that with the removal of so many bottlenecks as a result of judicial protection for lessors, the cost of leasing will be low and affordable for the carriers, thereby boosting their capacity.

“I also think that it will help the reputation of the operators and that of the country at large just as the violators damaged severely the Nigerian economy. This restitution will have multiple impacts on Nigeria. With it, I hope Nigeria can engage in dry leases because dry leases will give them room for them to employ pilots, and engineers and operate the way they want to operate. That is the situation.”

Wole Shadare