Foreign airlines in trouble as NCAA plans dragging them to ICAO, IATA over Kaduna Airport boycott

Unless foreign airliners reverse themselves over boycotting the Kaduna Airport, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) may drag them before the international regulatory bodies.

This is the fall out of the situation in which despite all incentives used in lobbying the major foreign airlines to use the Kaduna Airport, an alternative to the now closed Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, some of them still remain adamant.

Reports monitored by RipplesNigeria since Wednesday, marking the final shutting down of the Abuja airport, indicate that there may still be a change of mind by a coalition of foreign airliners to consider routing their Abuja-bound passengers through Kaduna.

Two days after the March 8 shut-down it was still only Kenya Airline that kept its promise to the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, that its planes would land at the Kaduna Airport.

It was gathered that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is threatening a measure that is seen as the last resort.

Quoting the clauses in the charter of both the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and that of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which run against refusal of the foreign airlines to respect Nigerian government’s programme aimed at guaranteeing saftey of aviation passengers, an official who refused to be identified, said the NCAA might before the end of March be compelled to report the offending airlines to the two international bodies for necessary sanctions.

Already, the Kaduna Airport is said to have been witnessing about 95 per cent patronage by local ailnes, but a sharp drop of about 60 per cent from the foreign airlines since the closure of Abuja Airport.

In fact, flight records obtained from the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority (NAMA), on Friday, showed that about 1,500 flights, meant for Abuja had only come to about 400 in Kaduna, while flights to the Murtala Mohammad Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, increased by about 40 per cent since the closure of the Abuja Airport.

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But the spokesman of NCAA, Sam Adurogboye, said there is no cause for alarm , given that the initial operational hiccups are bound to follow the change over from Abuja to Kaduna Airport.

He however, did not hesitate to say that there is a limit to which operators in the industry could hold the regulatory agency to ransom.

“All that are supposed to be put in, towards satisfying the needs of all stakeholders, have been done. This includes safety of both passengers and the airlines, as well as staff of all institutions expected to be at the airport; what else is anybody expecting from the authorities?

“I don’t believe that any of them (foreign airliners) would want to push the government to the wall,” he stated.

But a Nigerian-based manager of Emirate Airline, who pleaded for anonymity, said all the concerns of the various airline over use of the Kaduna Airport had been conmunicated to the appropriate authorities.

“All foreign airlines are about resuming their Abuja flights. And this will be done en-route Kaduna as directed, but on the belief that the concerns over security of the passengers, that of their staff and equipment would have been addressed.

“Contrary to speculations, the foreign airlines are not in any league to boycott Kaduna Airport, rather each expressed its own concern where it relates to its interest,” he said.

An aide to Sirika said meetings with the operators were still holding periodically, aimed at seeing those of them not yet on the route do so.

He refused to name the airlines still adamant in complying with the directive to route their Abuja flights through the Kaduna Airport.

 

 

 

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