Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
- MMIA reaches fourth stage of certification process
DIRECTOR General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) Captain Muhtar Usman has said that the regulatory body will not certify any airport that is below standard and will put mechanisms in place to ensure that the airports, if certified will remain so.
Usman made this known while speaking on the NCAA’s readiness to certify both Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja as he revealed that Lagos is in the 4th Stage of the 5-stage certification process.
According to Usman, they (NCAA) have been working hand in hand with the service providers to do a thorough job while stating that the job is to certify while the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) validates the certification.
He said, “We will not certify any airport that is below standards. We will ensure that airports that have met international standards as specified will be certified. And we will also mount surveillance to ensure that they continue to meet those standards and recommended practices with them, to continue to exercise privilege of the certificate issued to them.”
“Principally because of safety and primarily, the ICAO is more concerned about airports that are being used or designated as international airports. Towards that end, we have been working with the two operators or service providers, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), to ensure that all that needs to be put in place for the certification, have been put in place.”
“Our own is to certify after the operator in this case FAAN, beginning with Lagos and the next one will be Abuja. That all the requirements have been met with the certification, and they will continue to remain certified. So, it is one thing to attain the level of certification and another to sustain the certification. The standards have to be maintained.”
On how far the certification of Lagos has gone and the processes, he stated, “The certification process is in 5 stages and Lagos is about fourth stage. The fifth stage is just the signing of the certificate. So, we can say it is almost at the point of certification. Abuja too once Lagos is finished, we will concentrate more. ”
“Even though Abuja, some of the things that we needed to put in place were taken care of during the closure of the Abuja airport. As I said, there are 5 stages: the pre-application stage, formal application stage, document and evaluation of document stage, operational demonstration stage. ”
“At this stage, all the document you put forward, the way you operate, we want to see. And what you say you have in place are there and finally we sign the certificate. As I said, signing of certificate is just the beginning. You have certificate and it comes with privilege and you can only access the privilege if you continue to maintain the standards, ” he said
