James Odaudu, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Aviation on public affairs, Hadi Sirika, has revealed that Dana Air will be audited by the aviation regulator, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
Recall that Ripples Nigeria had reported that Dana Air’s license was suspended due to safety and financial concerns. The airline’s aircrafts had experienced multiple incidents that threatened passengers’ lives.
According to Odaudu, the suspension will be lifted depending on the findings of the NCAA, “If at the end of the process, the airline is found to be healthy, its services will resume,” he told NAN on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the acting Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Managing Agency (NAMA), Mathew Pwajok, said the suspension of Dana Air and the decision of Aero Contractors to pause its passenger flights will hurt Nigeria’s economy.
Aero Contractors had voluntarily withdrawn its passenger service due to cost of maintaining its fleets, as increase in dollar value made maintenance work costly for the management, considering it was being done abroad.
The airline is left with charter and helicopter services. The exit of Dana Air and Aero Contractors in the passenger flight schedule in the country will reduce volume of flights, thereby, negatively impacting NAMA’s revenue generation.
This comes at a period Nigerian government is generating less revenue, and spending over 100% of the turnover on servicing loans. Ripples Nigeria had reported that N1.94 trillion was spent on debt servicing in Q1 2022, but during the same period, FG recorded N1.63 trillion revenue.
Speaking on the impact the absence of the two companies will have, Pwajok said, “In the absence of airlines, there is no airspace management agency. We will not have anything to manage. So, it is of concern to us to ensure that the airlines are operating.
“That is why we go about deploying latest facilities, to upgrade our facilities to provide the service that is safe, secure, economical and efficient, and cost-effective to the airlines.
“That is to ensure that the airlines are doing well and stay in business and also keep us in business. We don’t have business if there are no airlines to manage.” Pwajok said.
