The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has announced that airlines and airports must adhere to all protocols to restart operations or they will not resume July 8.
The Director-General of the NCAA, Capt Musa Nuhu, revealed this when he spoke at a webinar on Thursday night regarding the status of the industry restart plan.
He commented that the industry restart was based on whether the airports and airlines have met the guidelines.
He added that the aviation minister’s announcement on flight resumption was not enough reason for flights to commence.
He said, “I keep saying that even if you are listed to start on the day and you do not meet the requirements set by NCAA, you are not getting the DG’s approval to start.
“That goes to the airport, the airlines, and service providers. We have to be ready and be sure each and every one component of the system is ready to join the network before we authorise them.”
He added, “Just because the minister says you can start on the 8th is based on NCAA giving you approval and authorisation to go-ahead to resume. I want everyone to understand that you need the approval of the civil aviation to start.”
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“It is not everyone that will join. It is only those who are ready that will join. We must not sacrifice safety both technical and health for the sake of financial gain. I will not authorise that and the minister would not authorise that.”
Nuhu emphasised his concerns on safety and unwillingness to take any risk.
The NCAA boss said the airports would resume operations phase by phase
He said. “On the 8th of July, only two airports are slated to start operations, only Lagos and Abuja.
“The reason is this. We need to start slowly, we need to start in an organised manner and in a volume we can contain and control in case anything happens. We cannot go full blast.”
Nuhu said because there were no sufficient resources to go full blast, the resumption would have to be a gradual process.
