In this interview, the director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu speaks on the United Arab Emirates, UAE’s lifting of ban on Nigeria and 11 other countries, expectations in 2022, statistics on the number of private jets in Nigeria, recertification of Lagos, recertification of Lagos and Abuja Airports and the certification of Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu Airport, rescinding the restriction of Emirates Airlines operations to Abuja Airport only among other issues.
Excerpts
Lifting of ban on Nigeria by UAE
The Country Manager of Emirates Airlines came to my office yesterday and he submitted a letter showing us a letter of release by Dubai Airport lifting the ban on Nigeria and 11 other African countries. Of course, we still have some protocols that have to be complied with. I think it is acceptable.
But, what I told him is that the issue of flight operations between Nigeria and UAE is based on BASA.
Nigeria as a government, we don’t deal with an airline, we deal with the authorities of UAE. So, what I told him is that the Civil Aviation Authority of UAE should write to us officially through diplomatic channels. When we have that, it means the Nigerian Government is in official communication with UAE. As soon as that letter comes in, I’m sure it is going to come may be today or tomorrow, we will act on it.
Unofficially, we are not aware because I need the UAE CAA to officially inform me through government to government channels. So, when we get that it becomes official.
When is the airline is going to resume flight services to Nigeria?
When we receive their letter, then, the Federal Government will have to take a decision on that. We have the Ministry of Aviation, which deals with matters of policies and also, we have the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on Covid-19. However, we don’t think it will take time to take a decision once we receive the letter officially.
Report that the Dubai Airport Authorities gave Air Peace some stringent measures before the airline can be allowed to fly into Dubai Airport?
I am not so sure on the measures you are talking about, but, we cannot choose for Air Peace whether it’s Dubai or Sharjah it wants to fly into. It depends on the airline to choose the airport it wants to fly into and the approval given by the UAE Government based on our Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) arrangement with them. We will support Air Peace and if Air Peace is having some issues there, we will see how we can help with the authorities there too so that they won’t have any problem and the airline can resume flight services to the airport.
Air Peace is a Nigerian carrier and it is our responsibility to ensure that they get any support we can give them like any other Nigerian carrier. We see a lot of countries that their airlines come here and how their governments support them. For instance, when United Airlines wanted to resume flight services to Nigeria, the American Government supported it through their embassy in Nigeria. Everybody is supporting its own and we should support our own airlines, too.
Has the authority rescinded the restriction of Emirates Airlines operations to Abuja Airport only?
The whole idea was because they didn’t give Air Peace what it requested for. Air Peace requested for three frequencies and they gave it just one and the reason they gave was that Sharjah airport was overstretched. Believe you me there is nobody that will tell you its airport is operating above capacity at the moment. But, if you look at Lagos Airport now, it is operating at above capacity. Lagos was launched in 1978 or 1979, how many people were travelling then and how many people are travelling now? If there is any airport that is operating above capacity it is Lagos Airport. But now, they said they have given Air Peace the slots it applied for and we have given them the slots they wanted, too.
Nigeria is planning to roll out the 5G network very soon, while the same network has been suspended in some countries, including the United States, what is your say on this?
It is not completely true that the 5G network has been suspended in the United States, rather it was just in some of the places close to a few of the airports within some radius that 5G was suspended in order to fully understand what is happening. The concern raised is about interference with aircraft that are being controlled to land. There is a critical component called radio altimeter; the spectrum by which this equipment operates is close to that of the 5G. So, they are afraid of interference from the radio altimeter and giving aircraft erroneous indication and it’s during aircraft approach landing when they are about 2,500ft or so above the ground. Usually, it is for flights that are put to land.
For us in Nigeria, we don’t have auto landing authorisation, our flights don’t do auto landing. So, for now, it is of no concern to us, but we are still monitoring the situation, see the development if there are issues that might affect us, then, we will take the necessary action.
What is your say on the letter that emanated from the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to the National Assembly, canvassing for the removal of NCAA from the civil service structure?
NCAA is a government agency and not an independent body. We operate under public service rules and government salary structure. We have very experienced pilots with minimum of 4,000 flying hours. That is the recommendation to be a flying instructor, but our pay is poor when compared to what the industry is paying. Our pay within the civil service structure seems to be great, but if you compare that to the closest we need from the industry, our pay is poor. So, people will rather go and work in the industry as a captain, earn some millions of naira, than to come here and earn less than N1 million.
It is normal for humans to do that. If I can work somewhere and get triple of my monthly salaries for less work, why will I go and work somewhere else? The only people that come to work for NCAA as flight operation inspectors are people who have retired from flying. People who have attained the age of 65 years or more and we employed them on special contracts and even as a special contract staff, when you get to 70 years of age, you are supposed to leave.
If you employ someone who is 65 years old, it takes you about 18 months to two years to train him and by the time he’s going to function as a full inspector, he has three years to go. He has to go by age 70. This is not a very efficient system. We need to find a right balance within the senior inspectors and the younger ones so that we do not have this every four years disruption where we have to start looking for inspectors.
It is very disruptive and it is not the most efficient use of resources. We certainly need the elderly people for their experience, but we need to strike the right balance.
We need to get people who can be employed as regular staff, people who are under 50 years old and can come out to work and by the time they retire at the mandatory age of 60, we can still engage them as contract staff for another 10 years. So, you will have people who can work with you for 20 years and this promotes stability in the system.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) documents 9737, we are supposed to be a competitive employer, but because we are under the civil service rule, which we must comply with, I cannot compete with the airlines in the hiring of staff and in the other side, the aviation safety inspectors, they come out of school, we employ them, train them, they are here for six years and when they are about to become very productive for the system, the private sector comes and attract them with better salaries and take them away.
We need to find a way of balancing this so that the system gets enough technical personnel to function. We are however, working on the government to see how things can be addressed. There is a limit we can pay. We are working with the ministry through the Honourable Minister of Aviation, Head of Service and salaries and wages commission to see how we can address this.
On AON letter, they came in and complained that some of their services are delayed and we explained to them that we do not have enough inspectors because they have a lot of work to do. So, we have to priotise the system, but if we have more hands, the work will be quite faster. And I understand the concerns of the airlines; they invested money and they don’t want delays. If you delay them, they are losing money.
Expectations in 2022?
2021 was relatively a good year for the Nigerian aviation industry, especially the domestic operators. We expect the growth to continue in 2022; we expect more airlines to take delivery of their new aircraft orders.
Can you give the statistics on the number of private jets we have in Nigeria?
I don’t have that figure off hand and I don’t want to give you an erroneous figure, but our expectation is that the private jet sector will also receive a boost. We believe it will increase.
On consistent allegation that some of the private jet operators engage in illegal charter services
The fact is that if we catch anyone misusing his type of license, we will sanction him and sanction could be a fine or up to the suspension of your operating permit.
How far has the New Civil Aviation Act 2020, which is expected to come on stream very soon addressed the 5 per cent TSC/CSC warehouse by NCAA on behalf of other agencies?
There is a bit of adjustment on the 5 per cent TSC/CSC and I have heard a lot of people say that NCAA is taking a bulk sum from the 5 per cent. That 58 per cent that we take is about 95 per cent of my own source of income. For the other agencies, whatever they get from it may be about 20 per cent of their own income because they get from other charges they render to clients.
But, NCAA doesn’t get any allocation from the Federal Government budgets. All the other agencies get from the government budgets. People just look at the TSC/CSC, but they don’t look at the bigger picture. Other agencies get annual budget from the Federal Government, landing and parking charges, over flier charges and other sources of revenues. So, all these things were taken into consideration before arriving at whatever we get from the 5 per cent.
Also, don’t forget, our fixed schedules have remain the same over the years. To get an Air Operators’ Certificate (AOC), it is just N200,000. That is less than a return business ticket from Lagos to Kano, basically, we are subsiding the industry. That is the least charge. Some organsations are buying planes worth tens of millions of dollars, but they are only paying N200,000 to get a certificate that will pronounce them as a commercial operator. Don’t you think something is wrong somewhere?
The N200,000 cannot even do manual reviews of the process, not to talk of training or retraining an inspector and you still pay him his salaries to provide those services to the airlines. So, that is one of those things we need to look forward to because the N200,000 is less than $300. I have countries in Africa that charge $200,000 for an AOC.
How far have you gone with the recertification of Lagos and Abuja Airports and the certification of Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu Airport?
For certification and recertification of airports, technical inspections took place last year to reconfirm the gaps there and action plans are being developed. Once they are developed and submitted to the NCAA, we will review them and those that are okay, we will go ahead with it and for those that are not okay, we will return them with comments and what is need to be done.
Recertification of Lagos and Abuja airports is ongoing; a few issues we need to close, FAAN is working on them. Every two weeks, we do have high level meetings at the NCAA through the Department of Aerodrome and Airspace, they meet and device a mean of resolving the issues. Hopefully, we can get all our international airports certified before the audit.
Just last week, an aircraft belonging to Arik Air was vandalised at the airside of the Lagos Airport, how will this affect the impending ICAO Safety audit?
For all I can say, investigations are ongoing on the incident, but I won’t say it was a vandalisation. What happen is that somebody who obviously knew where the aircraft is, somebody who knew obviously what he was doing, went to the E and E2 Compartments, walked in there and removed a component professionally without damaging anything. So, figure out that for yourself.
As far as I am concerned, it is an ongoing investigation. So, we will wait for the outcome of the investigation. It is very clear that I cannot go the very technical part of the aircraft and remove something there. I must know something about it and I am not new to the system. Whoever did that job knew what he was doing. The security agencies are investigating the issue.
Unfortunately, these issues happen everywhere. It is not the best to happen in your country, but it has already happened and we are investigating it and we will put in measures to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
Can we say the airports are porous
How many aircraft have been vandalised in Nigeria in the past 10 years? Let’s not use a single issue to destroy our country. This is one incident, which seems to have been done by a professional, maybe an insider. Have we had any case of people going to vandalise an aircraft in the last 10 years? This is one case and we should not use it to destroy the reputation of our industry.
It appears this was perpetuated by somebody who knew what he was doing and it was not as if somebody broke in from outside and went and vandalised an aircraft. It wasn’t vandalisation. This is a well clean job by someone who knew where to go and what to remove.
Why has it been difficult to remove unserviceable aircraft at the airports despite several attempts in the past?
Even before the National Assembly made a pronouncement on unserviceable aircraft, we have made attempts to remove them, but unfortunately, a lot of them have court cases and there is a kind of restriction on FAAN. So, it is a difficult situation, but we are having a meeting sometime next week to discuss this and see what we can do.
There are so many implications for these aircraft; it is congesting the ramp and to me, it has safety implications. It can have security implication and it denies the growth of the industry. Unused aircraft are parked and taking space where new and serviceable aircraft can take. So, it’s a very grave concern. We have discussed with FAAN even before the National Assembly talked on it. Court cases can sometimes tie your hands because if you go and do something, the court will fine you contempt of court.
Any comment on the police chopper accident?
The only thing I can say is that the AIB-N, which is a very competent and credible organisation is investigating the accident. Whatever I tell you now or whatever the police say now, to me, it’s a mere speculation. Let’s wait for the report from AIB-N who are up to the task and competent at doing the job.
Sometimes, they have even told us (NCAA) that we contributed to the gaps in the industry. To me, I see it as a very good development. If they see a gap with us and they are telling us to fix our home, I will take it like that. I am sure AIB-N will do a very good investigation and when they share their report with us, we will sit do with them and still will look at what we can do to improve the system.
