The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has explained that the United States Federal Aviation Administration delisted Nigeria from Category One Status of the International Aviation Safety Assessment programme over the lack of Nigerian airlines to ply the United States direct routes for two years.
This means that Nigerian carriers will not be able to 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 a 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.
In a swift reaction through a statement personally signed by the Acting Director General of the NCAA, Chris Najomo, the NCAA explained that to operate into US, Nigeria like most countries must satisfactorily pass the International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme and attain Category 1 status.
He said, “Upon attaining this status, 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.
“The first time Nigeria attained Category One Status was in August 2010. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration conducted another safety assessment of Nigeria in 2014. A further safety assessment was conducted on Nigeria in 2017, after which Nigeria retained her Category One status.
“However, with effect from September 2022, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration de-listed Category One countries who, after 2 years, had no indigenous operator provide service to the U.S. or carrying the airline code of a U.S operator. Also removed from the Category One list were countries where the FAA was not providing technical assistance based on identified areas of non-compliance to international standards for safety oversight.
“No Nigerian operator has provided service into the United States using a Nigerian registered aircraft within the two years preceding September 2022 so it was expected that Nigeria would be de-listed as were other countries who fell within this category. Nigeria was, therefore, de-listed since 2022 and was duly informed of this action in 2022.”
He, however, added that delisting the country counted as no safety offence against any Nigerian, adding that the country has undergone necessary Safety and Security Audits.
“It is important to clarify here that the de-listing of Nigeria has absolutely nothing to do with any safety or security deficiency in our oversight system. Nigeria has undergone comprehensive ICAO Safety and Security Audits and recorded no Significant Safety Concern or Significant Security Concerns respectively.
“It is furthermore necessary to add that a Nigerian operator can still operate into the U.S. using an aircraft wet-leased from a country that has a current Category One status,” Najomo noted.
