Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
NO fewer than 90 sanctions have been applied from October 2014 to December 2017, affecting airlines, Aircraft Maintenance Organizations (AMO), cockpit and cabin crew as well as engineers by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) stressing that it will not go back on regulation.
The NCAA Director General, Captain Usman Mukhar made this known in Aviation Round Table (ART) Q2 2018 Quarterly Business Breakfast Meeting with theme Evaluation of Safety and Security Performance of Aviation Agencies in the last four years.
Mukhar represented by the Director of Consumer Protection, Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi, said the 90 sanctions applied includes 15 pilots, 5 cabin crew, 4 engineers, a private security firm, four (4) Aircraft Maintenance Organizations (AMO) and five (5) airlines.
According to him however, sanctioning is not an achievement but a deterrent made to ensure that violators do not repeat violations.
Speaking on some of the NCAA’s Key Performance Indexes (KPI), Abdullahi stated that the NCAA in the past four years has had steady improvements in certain areas especially as regards professional advancement.
He stated that for the 3rd year running the country’s aviation industry has recorded Zero accidents and this is due to airlines adherence to standard operating procedures (SOPs) which are brought about by well-trained safety instructors.
Other KPIs used to show advancements is that between January to December 2017 licensed pilots has increased by 130 from 2016 as the number is now 2,356 from 2,226.
In the area of certification of validation from none in 2016, the NCAA records 46 certification; expatriate pilots in the country has reduced from 631 in 2016 to 609 in 2017 while aircraft maintenance engineers with validation is now 11 in 2017 from none in 2016.
Reeling further statistics, Adamu said licensed cabin crew has increased from 1808 in 2016 to 946 in 2017; flight dispatchers have also increased in same period from 543 to 602, while Air Traffic Controllers have also increased from 313 to 329.
Licensed air traffic safety electronic personnel increased also from 254 to 319, while flight engineers was 14 from having none in 2016 and licensed aeronautical station operators increased by seven from 100 to 107.
The NCAA director further stated that in terms of passenger traffic for 21 airport stood at a total of 25, 528 as average daily departure was 12, 761 while departure stood at 12,767 with 305 aircraft movement.
