Nigeria has been removed from the category one status of the International Aviation Safety Assessment programme over the lack of Nigerian airlines to fly the United States direct routes for the period of two years.
This is coming from the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), through a statement signed and released to the public, by the Acting Director General of the NCAA, Chris Najomo, on Monday September 2, 2024.
As a result of this recent update, automatically it means that Nigerian carriers will no longer operate directly to any city or airport in the US until the country is re-audited and re-certified by the FAA and moved to its previous status.
In the statement hNajomo said, "No Nigerian operator has provided service into the United States using a Nigerian registered aircraft within the two years preceding September 2022 so it was expected that Nigeria would be de-listed as were other countries who fall within this category. Nigeria was, therefore, de-listed since 2022 and was duly informed of this action in 2022.”
He further said, : "The first time Nigeria attained Category One Status was in August 2010. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration conducted another safety assessment of Nigeria in 2014. A further safety assessment was conducted on Nigeria in 2017, after which Nigeria retained her Category One status"
“However, with effect from September 2022, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration de-listed Category One countries who, after two years, had no indigenous operator provide service to the U.S. or carrying the airline code of a U.S operator. Also removed from the Category One list were countries where the FAA was not providing technical assistance based on identified areas of non-compliance to international standards for safety oversight"
The Director General of NCAA also stated that, Nigeria like most countries must pass the International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme excellently and satisfactorily in other to attain Category 1 status.
He further explained that Upon attaining this status, Nigerian airlines would be permitted to operate Nigerian registered aircraft and dry-leased foreign registered aircraft into the United States, in line with the existing Bilateral Air Services Agreement.
He, added that, removing the country counted as no safety offence against any Nigerian, saying that the country has undergone necessary Safety and Security process and Audits.
“It is important to clarify here that the de-listing of Nigeria has absolutely nothing to do with any safety or security deficiency in our oversight system. Nigeria has undergone comprehensive ICAO Safety and Security Audits and recorded no Significant Safety Concern or Significant Security Concerns respectively.
“It is furthermore necessary to add that a Nigerian operator can still operate into the U.S. using an aircraft wet-leased from a country that has a current Category One status,” the Aviation Boss stated.
Nigeria gained the USFAA CAT One Status in August 2010 after a competitive and rigorous exercise that spanned about five years, but due to factors that led to a drop in standards and the failure of any Nigerian airline to operate directly to the US for two years, the country has lost it's rating.
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