How NCAA Has Made Airline Emergence Easier Under Chris Najomo
The Director General, Civil Aviation, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Chris Najomo has noted how more applicants have been issued with Air Operators Certificate (AOCs) for airline operations under his watch to effect ease of doing business in airline investment.
In a chat with aviation journalists after the signing of a strategic partnership agreement between Fidelity Bank Plc and Aircraft Finance Germany (AFG) at the Nigerian Aircraft Acquisition & Investment Summit (NAAIS) held today in Lagos, Nigeria, Najomo said “AOC usually takes, in the past, two years, three years. But I have come. Within six to nine months, maximum, I do ease of doing business, but without compromising safety.”
“I can tell you, come four years back, the kind of aircraft that have been into this country were quite different. There’s fleet acquisition, newer fleets. We have Embraer. We have Boeing. We have Bombardier. We have all sorts. It’s not only the airline, even the private jet sectors, too,” he said.
Najomo said: “A lot is happening, and more will come. I predict in the next six months; in fact, as I’m sitting here, another person has said they want to start the AOC process. Six months from here, you will see an influx of aeroplanes. Initially, we did not have the capacity. Now, we are having the capacity.”
He added that Nigerian airlines are now going to the West Coast and can now explore the routes that have not been explored. “I can tell you about between seven and eight AOCs I have issued,” he said.
He stated that “in the next five, six months, you will see. You will see that more aircraft will come in; better aircraft, modern aircraft will come in. They are coming in already. We expect that more operators will take leverage of this.”
As an impact of the deal, Najomo assured that “the aircraft insurance will definitely come down. Insurance companies are all here and they have met. They are getting stronger. In as much as we have foreign insurance, we have the Nigerian insurance to back it up. I can tell you one ultimate thing we are going to see at the end of the day. Prices of tickets will come down. You can see they are coming down because we are beginning to have capacity.”
“We had no capacity before. So where we had airlines who were having two, three aircraft, they now have six, seven, eight. Ultimately, Air Peace is the biggest airliner here, with over 20, 25 aircraft,” said Najomo.
He explained how more airlines have been issued AOCs provided they follow the safety regulations.
