The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended the permit of three private jet owners for breaching the terms of their license by deploying their jets for commercial purposes.
The NCAA Acting Director-General, Capt. Chris Najomo, said following its increased monitoring across various terminals, it discovered that no fewer than three private operators had continued to breach the annexure provision of their Permit for Non-Commercial Flights (PNCF) and Part 9114 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2023.
The NCAA had earlier increased scrutiny on holders of PNCF after it emerged some of them had been offering their aircrafts for hire in clear violation of their licenses.
“In line with our zero tolerance for violation of regulations, the Authority has suspended the PNCF of these operators. To further sanitize the general aviation sector, I have directed a re-evaluation of all holders of PNCF be carried out on or before the 19th of April 2024 to ascertain compliance with regulatory requirements.
“All PNCF holders will be required to submit relevant documents to the authority within the next 72 hours,” the agency said.
Well aware of the prevalence of the act in the industry, The Aviation and Aerospace Development Minister, Festus Keyamo gave marching orders to the agency upon his appointment.
The statement went further: “This riot act is also directed at existing Air Operator Certificate (AOC) holders, who utilize aircraft listed on their PNCF for commercial charter operations.
“It must be emphasised that only aircraft listed in the Operation Specifications of the AOC are authorised to be used in the provision of such charter services. Any of those AOC holders who wish to use the aircraft for charter operations must apply to the NCAA to delist the affected aircraft from the PNCF and include it into the AOC operations specification.
“NCAA wishes to reiterate to the travelling public not to patronize any airline charter operator who does not hold a valid Air Operators Certificate issued by the NCAA, when they wish to procure charter operations services.
“Finally, NCAA encourages the legitimate players in the aviation industry to report the activity of such unscrupulous elements to the he authority promptly for necessary action.” the statement said