AM EDITORIAL: Ministerial Report On Illegal Charter Operations: The Enforcement Question

In June 2024, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo (SAN) established a Ministerial Task Force to address illegal private charter operations. The Task Force On Illegal Charter Operations and Related Matters was assigned the responsibility of conducting an inventory of all Permit for Non-Commercial Flight (PNCF) holders and air operator certificate holders, following widespread complaints from legitimate commercial air charter operators regarding money laundering and illegal drug smuggling, as well as security reports from the country’s intelligence agencies.

The task force was given a three-month deadline to finalize its report and present it to the ministry, and in March 2025 (over nine months later), Minister Keyamo received the report of the seven-member Task Force, which among other things, stated that the Federal Government had lost over N120bn in revenue in the past decade to the illegal act that was fueled by illegal charter operations, regulatory loopholes, and weak enforcement by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The Task Force equally highlighted security breaches, lack of interagency cooperation, and outdated policies stifling the sector’s growth and more importantly, outlined several measures that should be taken to curb illegal operations and restore order in the sector.

One key recommendation is the closure and restructuring of the General Aviation Terminal in Abuja to address critical security lapses, while stressing the need to strengthen oversight by the NCAA to ensure all operators comply fully with aviation regulations.

We are pleased with the Minister’s response of assurance and promise to confront headlong, this “practice that has been on, for many years before I became a Minister.” We count on the Minister’s pedigree that he highlighted, coming from a civil society background and having prosecuted cases for the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for about a decade.

We wish the Minister well and hope he confronts clogs in the wheel of  enforcement on this matter, which has been the strength of illegality persistence over the years. Without enforcement, illegal activities simply persist, especially in a sub-sector where most private and charter aircraft owners are political office holders and high profile personalities that enjoy undue system protection in the Nigerian society; a sub-sector where most aircraft involved in this act are foreign registered. Some foreign registered private aircraft operators have for so long, exploited poor oversight and policy loopholes to operate for hire and reward in the name of private flights.

The heavy challenge of proof of illegal charter operations must be confronted. In most cases, payments for illegal charters are often made in cash and through proxies, making it difficult to track transactions. Besides, where an operator flies a so called private non-commercial aircraft here and there, with his friends on various occasions, an aircraft that ought to do 10 hours per month, does close to 100 hours under the guise of private use and this poses a serious safety issue.

There is need for a collaborative approach by the various aviation agencies in monitoring of illegal flights, rather than leaving the responsibility to NCAA alone, even though the responsibility of enforcement lies with the regulator. Also, the regulator needs to live up to its responsibility on this illegal practice.

The major aged challenge with this particular industry challenge has been ENFORCEMENT. The General Aviation sub-sector under the current administration would record a remarkable win if at least, ONE illegal charter operator is prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to other known but unpunished offenders. More importantly, sanitization of this segment of the aviation industry would have been perceived and possibly seen to be in progress if this happens. AM