Seek clarification before comments to avoid misinformation,DG NCAA advises commentators,analysts
Capt.Musa Nuhu
| The Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA),Capt.Musa Nuhu has appealed to some aviation analyst and commentators to seek clarification from the Agency before reeling out what they observed about development in the industry to avoid misinformation. Speaking with newsmen in Lagos,Nuhu said“I want to appeal to some of the industry analyst or stakeholders to come to us before making any public comments. When they hear stories or something, they can come to us and seek clarifications, rather than go out there and make wild comments, which aggravate the system.” “I read a lot in different platforms daily and sometimes, it is annoying when some certain people who are respected members of the industry and are supposed to be the conduit for the industry, make false comments for whatever reasons without seeking NCAA clarifications.” “We are open and ready to answer questions from the public. I expect people to seek clarifications. When you don’t seek clarifications and you go and make statements that are contrary, you are only making more problems for the industry.” On Airline airfares and NCAA interference,he explained that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission(FCCPC) has its own functions which are different from that of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.”FCCPC deals with consumer protection and NCAA deals with air transport regulations,which I think still deals with the issue of airfares.” According to the Director General,all airlines are supposed at the beginning of each year to file their airfares to NCAA and most of the airlines do that. However, during the year, if the airfares are going to be higher than the ones filed before the NCAA, the airline is supposed to notify NCAA. Then, we will do our reasonableness check and if we are good with it, we tell them to go ahead, but if not, we will tell them no. He said that it is not an unfettered deregulation that they can do as they like, there are guidelines to that in our regulations. Answering questions on multiple designations to airlines Captain Nuhu noted “Unfortunately NCAA is not the one responsible for Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) negotiations to airlines. It is a policy issue and this is led by the Ministry. NCAA makes its own contributions, but the final decision is by the Ministry. So, anyone that blames NCAA for that is either out of lack of understanding of how BASA negotiations work for Nigeria; and every country has its own peculiarity on how they do BASA. In Nigeria, it is the ministry.” Nigeria Air and AOC stage: “The only thing I can tell you is that the promoters of that airline have applied and their Air Operator Certificate (AOC) is ongoing. I don’t have any assurances of when the licenses would be. You see, when you apply for AOC or any certification, some issues that are not completely under the purview of NCAA like seeking security clearance for the applicant, security agents do that. I don’t have a control over security agencies to give such clearances. They have applied and it is ongoing, we are waiting for security clearance.” On extension of AOC for some airlines,he told newsmen that to renew AOC, there are certain conditions and processes that must be completed. If for whatever reason, either from the operator or the NCAA, we cannot complete those processes before the expiration of the AOC, we will extend it for them. “Extension is for the system to continue to ensure that all regulatory requirements are complied with for the renewal. Sometimes for some reasons, some operators are not able to meet certain requirements on time or may be on our own part, we cannot complete the process, then, we say instead of disrupting the system, we give them extension for that period so that they can continue their operations.” “Before the extension completes, their renewal is given. People just talk without seeking clarifications. So, we look at the situations, give them extension while we continue to work to complete the renewal process. Renewal is not automatic. It is a process with steps, which must be completed”. Maximum period of extension: “The most we have given if I am not mistaken is 90 days, but usually, it is hardly more than 30 days. We do this thing so that the system will keep functioning. You can imagine if we are unable to complete the process either on the part of the airline or NCAA, we now ground one or two airlines, can you imagine the chaos that we will have in the industry?” “So, people need to understand, rather than the blanket condemnation without clarifications on what the actual issue is and why we are doing what we do.” It is the same people that will turn around and insult us if we don’t renew the AOC of a particular airline. Whatever you do, head or tail, you lose, avoid misinformation. |
