Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to carry out financial audit on 8 remaining domestic airlines

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) announced it is carrying out economic and financial audits of 8 remaining domestic airlines in Nigeria, according to NAN.

This was disclosed by Capt. Musa Nuhu, the Director-General, NCAA, during an interview with journalists in Lagos on Wednesday.

Last month saw the grounding of Dana Airlines and the temporary suspension of Aero Contractors services last month, due to the impact of the challenging environment on its daily operations, which led to failures in meeting financial obligations.

What they are saying

Captain Nuhu revealed that the audit is to determine the financial health conditions of the airlines, adding that they have commenced intensive financial and economic audits on 3 other indigenous airlines, which will be followed by the other 5 airlines soon.

”While Aero Contractors voluntarily suspended its operations, NCAA grounded the services of Dana Air, following its alleged failure to run safe operations.

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”The remaining 8 scheduled airlines are: Air Peace, Arik Air, Max Air, Green Africa, United Nigeria, Overland, Azman Air and Ibom Air,” he said.

He added that the scarcity of foreign exchange and high price of Jet A1, has brought about challenges in Nigeria’s aviation industry, and urged that the regulator will not keep its guards down on safety.

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“We are currently conducting financial and economic audits of airlines in the country. We have done two or three and other airlines will be taken in batches. I will discuss with the airline’s management on the way forward.

“Like I said, we have a financial crisis and we don’t want it to cross over into a safety crisis. We need to manage the situation.

“For now, we remain focused while working to address the solution to the financial difficulties in the airlines. This cannot go on forever, so we are working round-the-clock to find a solution.

“Yes, it is a very difficult situation, but we are just going to do what we are doing. We are working together and collaborating with others to address the situation in the industry,” he added.

On the suspension of Dana Air operations, he said that during the financial and economic audit of the airline, the NCAA discovered some “grave concerns” in the operations of the airline that could affect safety.

What you should know

Nairametrics reported last month that Nigeria’s oldest surviving private airline, Aero Contractors, announced a temporary suspension of passenger flight operations from Wednesday, July 20, due to the impact of the challenging environment on its daily operations.
Aero said that the past few months have been very challenging for the aviation industry and airline operators in particular, with high cost of maintenance, skyrocketing fuel prices, inflation and forex scarcity, resulting in high foreign exchange rate.
Also, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) ordered the indefinite grounding of Dana Airlines’ Air Transport Licence (ATL) and Air Operator Certificate (AOC).
It said findings of an investigation conducted on the Airline’s flight operations recently also revealed that Dana Airlines was no longer in a position to meet its financial obligations and to conduct safe flight operations.