The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has explained why Nigeria lost its Category 1 Status, which disqualified Nigerian airlines from flying into the U.S. as required.

NCAA disclosed this in a statement signed by its acting director-general, Chris Najomo, on Tuesday.

According to him, like most countries, Nigeria must satisfactorily pass the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) Programme and attain Category 1 status to operate in the U.S.

“The attention of the NCAA has again been drawn to a publication about the purported ban on Nigerian airlines by the United States. Due to the wrong impression such news could create, it has become expedient that we put this report in its proper perspective.

“Upon attaining Category 1, Nigerian airlines would be permitted to operate Nigerian registered aircraft and dry-leased foreign registered aircraft into the United States, in line with the existing Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA),” he said.

Mr Najomo recalled that the first time Nigeria attained Category 1 was in August 2010, while the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted another safety assessment on Nigeria in 2014.

He said a further safety assessment was conducted on Nigeria in 2017, after which Nigeria retained its Category 1 status. 

The NCAA boss said that, since September 2022, the U.S. FAA de-listed Category 1 countries that, after two years, had no indigenous operator to provide service to the U.S. or carry the airline code of a U.S. operator.

“No Nigerian operator has provided service into the United States using a Nigerian registered aircraft within the two-year period preceding September 2022.

According to him, Nigeria’s de-listing has nothing to do with any safety or security deficiency in the nation’s oversight system.

Mr Najomo said Nigeria had undergone comprehensive International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Safety and Security Audits and recorded no Significant Safety Concern (SSC) or Significant Security Concern (SSeC), respectively.

NCAA boss said aviation minister Festus Keyamo had embarked on an aggressive international campaign to empower local operators to access the dry-lease market around the world, which culminated in the visit to Airbus in France earlier this year and the MOU signed with Boeing in Seattle, Washington, just last week.

“The honourable minister has also done a lot of work to make Nigeria comply fully with the Cape Town Convention, which will bring back the confidence of international lessors in the Nigerian aviation market.

“We are confident that with these steps of the Honourable Minister, it is only a matter of time that Nigeria not only regains but can sustain its U.S. Category 1 status,” Mr Najomo said. 

(NAN)