Nigeria Air, the long awaited national carrier, is well on its way to becoming a reality, as earlier this week the airline received from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), its Air Transport License (ATL) bearing the number NCAA/ATR1/ATL214.
At the awarding ceremony, the Director General (DG), NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu commented: “This ATL has gone through all the processes, and so at this point in time, I would like to do the presentation. We look forward to the fulfillment of the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) process so that we can also hand over the AOC certificate to you. As the regulator, we work with operators. Our goal is to promote the growth of the industry. It is important to have strong airlines in Nigeria, in view of the Single African Transport Market and the African Continental Free Trade Area”, he said.
In response, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Air, Mr. Dapo Olumide, expressed satisfaction at the professionalism shown by the NCAA at every step leading up to this point before adding, “What we need now is to go through the necessary stages to get our AOC from the NCAA. There’s no magic in the process. When you have an ATL and AOC, you can commence commercial scheduled operations. The date of commencement of operations is largely based on the process one is following to get the AOC”, he said.
Despite this, sources say the process for the acquisition of Nigeria Air’s AOC is already at an advanced stage, and the much coveted certificate may be obtained next month – something that had previously been suggested by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika.
According to Mr. Olumide, Nigeria Air’s aircraft have already been identified as part of the requirements of the NCAA, and the airline is presently “waiting for the terms of agreement with Provider of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)”, he said.
An ATL is a document with a validity of five (05) years which states the nature of operations to be carried out by an airline (domestic, international/scheduled, non-scheduled or cargo); while an AOC authorizes an airline to begin scheduled commercial operations.
