New US aviation law ‘delists’ Nigeria from category one aviation status

• Designated Nigerian carriers to US can’t fly 
• Nigeria, airlines to undergo recertification
• Ethiopia, Egypt, Rwanda, Morroco, SA retain status

A new law by the United States apex aviation regulatory body, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stipulates that nations whose carriers fail to operate to the United States under the ‘Open Skies’ agreement between it and the US. for at least two years will have its entire sector and airlines designated to America undergo recertification.

The recertification involves a whole process that includes scrutiny of airport security, airport facilitation, airline audit and the type of aircraft to be used for the operations to the US by the designated airline or airlines.

The new rule which came into effect a few months ago has technically delisted Nigeria from the category one aviation status.

The implication is that no designated airline from Nigeria can operate to the US at the moment except through a third country.

Air Peace and United Nigeria Airlines designated to Washington and Houston, Texas may see their plans to launch flights to the two cities hampered at least until they are certified including the country’s entire aviation processes.

Pending the recertification, Nigerian carriers will technically be ineligible to operate to the US as none of the country’s carriers operates to America even after they had long been designated to Houston and Washington DC under the ‘Open Skies’ air pact between Nigeria and America.

Nigeria’s name is conspicuously missing from the list of African countries in the FAA Flight Standard Service International Aviation Safety Assessment  (IASA) programme otherwise known as the category one country list.

Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Morocco, and South Africa are the African countries on the FAA Category One list. The countries on the category one list are said to meet ICAO standards while countries on category 2 are said to be countries that do not meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Standards.

Nigeria had in 2017 before the new law that mandates recertification after two years of failure to operate to the US scaled through an- audit conducted on its aviation facilities by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

A team of auditors from the FAA visited Nigeria for an audit of the safety status of the country’s civil aviation industry in November 2017. The audit was for the Category One (Cat 1) certification that enables direct flight connections between the US and other countries.

According to an expert who spoke to Aviation Metric at the weekend, the recertification does not in any infer that Nigeria’s aviation is not safe or that the country has lost its coveted category one status, adding that all that is needed is to ensure that the airlines that had been designated meet all the safety conditions and by extension the country’s safety and security procedures.

The U.S.-Nigeria Air Transport Agreement, which has been provisionally applied since 2000, entered into force on May 13, 2024.

This bilateral agreement establishes a modern civil aviation relationship with Nigeria consistent with U.S. Open Skies international aviation policy and with commitments to high standards of aviation safety and security.

The agreement includes provisions that allow for unrestricted capacity and frequency of services, open route rights, a liberal charter regime, and open code-sharing opportunities.

No Nigerian carrier has operated to the US since Arik Air ceased operations to New York seven years ago.

The American highest aviation regulatory body, the FAA is mandated to re-certify the country’s category one status whenever there are no flights servicing the route for more than two years according to an ICAO member who spoke to our correspondent.

It would be recalled that for many years after the liquidation of Nigeria Airways, Nigeria’s aviation was downgraded to category two status because of the country’s poor regulatory processes.

This haunted the country and the sector for many years until 2010 when a former Director-General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Dr. Harold Demuren galvanized the sector, using Arik Air to achieve the restoration of category one aviation status as a new airline at that time from the US government under the FAA International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme (IASA).

This meant that Nigeria complied with international air safety standards set by the ICAO, the United Nation’s technical agency for aviation that establishes international standards and recommended practices for aircraft operations and maintenance.

An IASA category one rating means that a country has the laws and regulations necessary to oversee air carriers following minimum international standards and that its civil aviation authority equivalent to the FAA for aviation safety matters meets international standards for technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping and inspection procedures.

Chief Executive Officer of Belujane Consult, Mr. Chris Azu Aligbe who is in the know of the planned recertification process said recertification involves a lot of processes, stressing that even designated airlines would have to go through an audit.

Aligbe further stated that the new law that any airline that had not operated in the US in two years would undergo recertification, explaining that the law was not there before now but a new one.

Wole Shadare