NCAA ready to impose new fines for global compliance

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has revealed plans to increase violation fines by airlines to a maximum of N10million and a minimum of N2million in line with current global acceptable standard.

The NCAA DG Captain Nuhu Musa stated this at a three-day aviation stakeholders consultation forum on the proposed amendment of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations in Abuja.

This, he noted is part of effort to further strengthen air safety and security in the aviation sector, ROYAL NEWS has gathered.

However, some stakeholders are of noted that some operators have been unjustly punished for actions that were not thoroughly investigated with penalties and charges slammed on them without recourse to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) or any regulatory body.

Hence it is unclear to them whether ICAO standards are been followed as the authority that ought to nurture the industry rather than increasing charges and sanctioning airlines.

Meanwhile, the NCAA boss assured them that every steps are being taken in line with the ICAO standards, stressing that the Agency’s charges is far below what is being charged in dollars when compared with what is obtainable in other climes.

Musa further said the NCAA has never turned deaf ears to operators in a bid to review the fines levelled against them as it’s purpose is not punitive but to regulate the Industry in line with it’s mandate.

He therefore appealed to all stakeholders to partocipate robustly in order to birth a regulation that is owned by all.

According to him, “We all have important part to participate the development of this new registration to put aviation industry in the right pedestal in scheme of Nigeria economy as Aviation is a catalyst and an important factor in the economy growth of an industry.

“I think the Nigeria Aviation industry is underserved right now, this is why we need to work together to see how we can stimulate growth of the industry in an organized, orderly manner to civil operations, secure operations, efficient operation and to also ensure that investors get appropriate returns for their investment so that the industry can grow and contribute significantly to the GDP.”

In his remarks, the Chairman NCAA Committee on Regulations, Engr Godwin Balang, noted that the essence of the stakeholders forum is to overhaul the entire rules to further make ways for a better and more robust set of rules covering a period of five years.

He also pointed out that Act has not been updated since 2009, hence the need to urgently have it reviewed in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization standard.

Balang said: “some of the new amendment that would be seen is the increase of validation of the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from 3years to 5years, specific regulations would be made for General Aviation, Air Ambulance.

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“The Manual of Standard and Aerodromes Standard Manual containing ICAO standards have also been reviewed from being outside the regulations into the regulations. The regulations will be made available on the Website so as to make it to more user friendly.”