Air Peace, Others Barred From Flying Into The US

Nigeria has been delisted from the United States Federal Aviation Administration Category One Status (USFAA CAT 1) In­ternational Aviation Safety Assessment programme (IASA), investigation by Dai­ly Independent can reveal.

With this removal, no Nigerian air­line, including Air Peace, which planned to commence direct flight from Lagos to New York “soon,” can operate directly to any city or airport in the US until the country is re-audited and re-certificated by the FAA and returned to its former status.

Nigeria gained the USFAA CAT One Status in August 2010 after a rigorous exercise that spanned about five years, but due to the combined factors of drop in standards and the failure of any Nigerian airline to operate directly to the US for seven years, some stakeholders said the country lost the rating.

The new USFAA law says that the failure of any country’s air­line to operate directly to the US for two years or vice-versa would lead to the loss of the Cat­egory One Status.

It is not clear how long Nige­ria had fallen off from the prime status, but a source close to the Ministry of Aviation and Aero­space Development, confided in Daily Independent over the weekend that it was “before the 2023 general elections.”

This newspaper gathered that Hadi Sirika, the immediate past Minister of Aviation, had told the agencies’ heads then and some major stakeholders not to divulge the removal of the country from the status to the public in order not to affect the then impending general elections in 2023.

It was a secret well-kept by those who were aware of the country’s removal by the US­FAA until Daily Independent in­vestigation exposed its delisting.

Arik Air, the sole Nigerian on the Lagos-New York route, had on February 3, 2017, sus­pended operations to the US, a few days before its takeover by the Asset Management Corpo­ration of Nigeria (AMCON).

However, two United States carriers, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, still operate direct flights to Nigeria from their bases.

While Nigeria is out of the list, seven other Af­rican countries still retain the USFAA Category One Status.

The countries are Cabo Verde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda and South Africa.

Further investigation by Daily Independent re­vealed that in the updated list of USFAA, there are 83 countries either in Category One or Two of the list, but Nigeria is con­spicuously missing on either of the two categories.

Investigation revealed that at present, there are 78 countries on USFAA Category One Status, including the above mentioned seven African countries, while another five countries are on Category Two Status.

Some of the countries in the Category One Status include Argentina, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Domin­ican Republic, Ecuador, El Sal­vador, France, Germany, Israel, Italy and Ireland.

Others are Kuwait, Japan, Jordan, Panama, Portugal, Phil­ippines, Romania, Samoa, Sam Marino, Poland, Suriname, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United King­dom UK), Uzbekistan, Vietnam and many more.

The only five countries on Category Two are Venezuela, Thailand, Russia, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Bangladesh.

However, an industry expert who didn’t want his name in print explained that the remov­al of Nigeria from the US FAA Category One Status was due to one of the new rules by FAA, which bars countries whose air­lines had not flown into the US for two or three years.

This, he said, led to the re­moval of Nigeria from the list.

The industry expert equally reiterated that it was not due to the failure of infrastructure, safety, and aero-politics, but regretted the removal of the country from the status.

He said: “The sad thing about Nigeria is that since we signed ‘Open Skies’ agreement with the US, we were not operating to the country and they gave us five years to establish ourselves before they start operating into Nigeria, but we couldn’t do that. Then, Category One was signed under Dr. Harold Demuren and Arik Air stopped operating into the US in 2017 under Category One.

“Recall that Arik Air was used as one of the test airlines for Nigeria to achieve Category One and since Arik Air stopped, no Nigerian airline has operat­ed to the US. The fact is that other countries upgraded their rules, while Nigeria stopped. The fact of the matter is Nigeria has not infringed on any rule, but with their new rule, you have to comply.”

He, however, said that for any Nigerian airline to commence direct flight into the US, the Nigeria civil aviation would be re-audited by the USFAA, including the technical staff strength, safety and security apparatus layout.

Grp. Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), the Chief Executive Offi­cer (CEO), Centurion Aviation Security Limited, confirmed that Nigeria lost the status about two years ago.

But Ojikutu attributed the delisting of the country to neg­ligent on oversight and enforce­ment of the safety and security regulations and programmes by the government.

For instance, Ojikutu men­tioned the recent safety and security audits of the civil aviation industry by the Inter­national Civil Aviation Organ­isation (ICAO), where Nigeria performed below industry standards and with numerous open items.

He emphasised that the country’s prime airport, Murta­la Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, was lacking in security fence for over 20 years without any major improvement, while cases of incursions into the airport had climbed in recent times.

All these, he pointed out would result in the US FAA stopping Nigerian airlines from operating into the US.

He added: “The major prob­lem in the Nigerian civil aviation administration and manage­ment is the inconsistency of the appointments into the manage­ment positions and progression of the professional staff.

“We must prepare the Ni­geria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) again for another US FAA/Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Catego­ry One audit within a year from now to be able to pave the way for any designated flag carrier to fly to the US. Otherwise, the plan of Air Peace to go to the US can not materialise. As at now, the NCAA has no skills for any US FAA/TSA Category One audit.

“There are also other silent reports made to ICAO by the foreign airlines, which are not complementary to the NCAA oversight and enforcement of the safety and security in par­ticular.”

Engr. Femi Adeniji, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NIGAME Aircraft Consultancy Incorporation based in Florida, USA, explained that the delist­ing of Nigeria from Category One Status would affect the plan of Air Peace with its interna­tional flights to the US.

For Nigeria to return to the prime status, he advised the government to equip the NCAA with trained inspectors, experi­enced and complete re-organi­sation of the agency, including digitisations of regulations, which, he said, would give easy access to operators.

Besides, Capt. Mohammed Badamasi, an aviation analyst, purported that the recent incon­sistencies in safety and security in the industry may be responsi­ble for the loss of the Category One Status.

Badamasi queried the last time the NCAA carried out an internal audit of its activities that were supposed to prepare it for the mandatory external au­dit by any external bodies, won­dering if the agency was able to close all the gaps noticed in the last safety and security audits of Nigeria by ICAO.

Also, he explained that the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) had failed in its responsibility of properly main­taining the infrastructure like buildings, runways, taxiway, lights and others, while security and safety at the airport perime­ter had also taken a flight.

He added: “In my own view, I see something wrong adminis­tratively. There are people who feel betrayed administratively. Internal wrangling. Leadership problems.

“A lot of hard work needs to be done with sincerity of pur­poses, having listed the grey ar­eas. Let them take a look at their visions and missions to deter­mine if they are still available.”

An AISA Category One rating means a country has the laws and regulations nec­essary to oversee air carriers in accordance with minimum international standards and that its civil aviation authority equivalent to the FAA for civil aviation matters meets interna­tional standards for technical expertise, trained personnel, record keeping and inspection procedures.

There are eight critical ele­ments required to be fulfilled before a country can scale the FAA audit. They are legislation, regula­tions, organisations, technical staff, technical guidance tools, licensing, continuous surveil­lance and resolution of safety concerns.