Arik Air suspends flight operations to Dubai

… Attributes flight delays to aviation fuel scarcity

Arik Air has announced the suspension of its flight operations to Dubai.  According to a statement from the airline which states that “its Executive Board has taken the decision to temporarily suspend its Dubai service operating from Lagos via Abuja with effect from April 28, 2015.” The airline gave the reason for the suspension to be a challenging economic atmosphere in Nigeria and difficult travel regulations by the Gulf country.  “A challenging wider economic environment in Nigeria as well as increasingly stringent travel regulation controls in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) has contributed to the decision to suspend the service.”

Also the airline has blamed its recent flight delays and cancellations on the fuel shortage at its operational base in Lagos.  “Flight delays and cancellations being experienced by Arik Air passengers in the last few days have been attributed to the general scarcity of aviation fuel (Jet A1) in Lagos.

There has been short supply of the product in Lagos and this has led to rationing by the petroleum product marketers. Signs of the scarcity started manifesting on Thursday, April 23, 2015 when marketers were unable to meet the demands of the airlines, especially Arik Air which by volume of its operations requires a daily supply of between  600,000 and 800,000 litres of aviation fuel”-the airline said.

The airline expressed how the fuel scarcity has negatively impacted on its operations: “The scarcity has impacted negatively on Arik Air’s operations as flights have had to be delayed or cancelled in cases where the destination airport has no airfield lighting.

 In some other cases, flights were diverted to other airports outside Lagos where the product was readily available.

On Friday, Arik Air’s flight to London Heathrow had to go via Accra to take fuel. Also on Saturday, the same London flight had to go to Cotonou, Benin Republic first to fuel before coming back to Lagos for the outbound flight to Heathrow.

In the case of the Johannesburg flight of Friday, the aircraft had to first go to Port Harcourt where fuel was available before proceeding on the journey. On Monday, the London flight went via Kano to take fuel. Flying via other stations to take fuel has come at a great cost to Arik Air but the airline had to do this to ameliorate the inconvenience the scarcity may cause its guests.”

Arik Air sincerely apologise to its esteemed guests over the inconvenience which is due to circumstances beyond the control of the airline. The management also appeals to its esteemed guests to bear with the airline at this critical time of fuel scarcity hoping that the situation would be back to normal in a short while.

NCAA HOLDS PBN STAKEHOLDERS FORUM

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA has announced that it will be converging   stakeholders across the aviation strata to hold a forum on Performance-based Navigation. According to a statement by the Deputy General Manager Public Relations of the agency, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, “ all practitioners and professionals in the aviation industry will gather together at the NCAA Conference Facility as the Regulatory Authority is set to hold a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) stakeholders’ forum.”

The agency is holding this forum to further increase the level of awareness among the users of the PBN. “The PBN stakeholders’ forum is the third within the last four years. It is part of the Authority’s efforts to raise the level of awareness for the users of the Performance Based Navigation (PBN) concept and all other stakeholders in the industry.”

According to the statement the forum will witness the introduction of the newly developed Procedure Manual on PBN Operational Approval Process. This Manual will provide guidance to Airline Operators on how to comply with requirements for PBN operations.

The Stakeholders Forum will take place on Wednesday,29^th April,2015,at the NCAA Conference Facility at NCAA Headquarters Annex at 10.00 am.

NCAA restores DiscoveryAir AOC …To carry out mini audit before operations

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA has lifted the suspension on the Air Operator Certificate AOC of the DiscoveryAir. The licence of the airline was suspended in January 2015. Confirming the news in a telephone conversation was the Chairman of the airline Mr. Babatunde Babalola. According to him, “ We are delighted to have our AOC back.” Sharing the positive news also was the Executive Director to the airline Mrs. Olushola Odubunmi who said ‘the letter of AOC’s restoration was delivered to the airline this morning’.

A statement from NCAA also echoes the reinstatement.  “The Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA), Capt. Muhtar Usman has lifted the suspension placed on the operations of Discovery Air.

This was contained in a letter sent to the management of the airline titled “Notice of Restoration of Air Operators Certificate” which was signed by the Director General of the Authority.

The decision to restore the AOC was predicated on the satisfactory conclusion of a Financial Health Audit of the Airline.”

With a tone of satisfaction  the regulatory authority said, “In the aftermath of the Audit, the management of the Airline has demonstrated encouraging commitment to offset the outstanding staff salaries by the 30th of April, 2015.

In addition, all staff sent on compulsory leave without pay have been recalled.

The DG said the Authority is satisfied with the Letters of Credit from their financiers which had provided guarantee for their business in the long term.

Therefore in consideration of all the actions taken by the airline to address passenger complaints, the Authority, pursuant to Section 35(6) of the Civil Aviation Act 2006 hereby lifts the suspension of, and restores the Airline’s Air Operators Certificate (AOC) with effect from the date of receipt of this letter.”

Capt. Usman however, wishes to inform the airline that prior to commencement of flight operations, the Authority shall carry out a mini audit of the airline to confirm the safety of its operations.

NAMA calibrates NAVAIDS

In a bid to further enhance the safety of the Nigerian airspace, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, (NAMA) has commenced the calibration of its navigational aids at airports and en-route stations across the country. This is according NAMA through an online statement made available to aviation journalists.

The routine calibration exercise intended to determine the precision and accuracy of these navigational aids is being handled by ASECNA of Senegal in collaboration with NAMA Engineers and is expected to last for about two weeks.

The exercise would involve the calibration of the agency’s Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), Very High Omni-Directional Radio Range (VOR), Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), Path Approach Precision Indicators (PAPI) and Air Field Lighting Systems.

Other facilities to be calibrated include the Communication Radio Coverage across the nation.

In his remarks at the commencement of the calibration exercise yesterday in Lagos, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Engr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam, noted that the operation was “targeted at putting all the navigational aids at the nation’s airports and en-route stations in optimal capacity in line with ICAO standards to continue to generate precise and accurate signals to guarantee the safety of air navigation in Nigeria.”

We are ready to code-share with any airline-Chairman Air Peace

Air Peace aircraft (inset:Barrister Allen Onyema, Chairman/CEO)

The cry for consolidation has been ongoing for a while in Nigeria aviation industry but most of the domestic operators have paid deaf ear to it.  The Chairman of Air Peace Allen Onyema said Air Peace will rather go into code-sharing with any airline that is ready to do business with it than merger. According to Onyema, “We can go into code-sharing with any airline that wants to do business with us. We will prefer code sharing to merger. We have invested so much into our operation than to merge with another airline that is not ready to pursue our goal in setting up of the Air Peace. We want to employ more Nigerians. We are out to provide jobs for Nigerians”.

On expansion plan he said, “We take it a day after another. First and foremost, we started with a fleet of seven aircraft .If we have started with two aircraft, yes, we might be talking of expansion now but we started with seven aircraft. At times with more aircraft, they are not available for operation, because they are down or probably, they have gone for maintenance. However, nobody wants to be static. We look forward to adding to our feet.  When God says it is time for expansion, we will do that. It is the wish of every airline to expand.  We do not want to bite more than we can chew. Greed at times can make people want to service every route. For us, we want to be sure the route we want operate into will be is viable.”

He also explained the cost of maintenance that cannot be jeopardised by the airline. “Maintenance is one area you cannot joke with. Everything is done in dollars. Light maintenances are done in Nigeria but checks are done abroad. Day to day maintenance is carried out here in Nigeria. We have outsourced our maintenance to  a  British company anchored by BTC Maintenance Aviation Limited.  They are here. We brought them down from the United Kingdom. None of our aircraft is taken to the sky without their permission. It comes at a huge cost. We embrace this because we do not play with lives of our passengers and staff. We do not want to play with our machines also. I have not flown another airline since we begin operation because I trust the maintenance done on the machines.”  

‘Proactive policy will address pilots' unemployment’ -Meggison

Osita Chidoka, Minister of Aviation

The  grand patron of Nigerian Professional Pilots ( NPP), Captain Nogie Meggison who is also the Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON  has called on the Federal Government to put in a place a proactive policy that will address  the projected 500 Nigerian licensed  pilots   that  are unemployed  .

He said the number of unemployed pilots is increasing from  the current 200 to an astronomical number when the over 100  student pilots' sent to Jordan by the Kano State government would graduate  later this year. This is in addition to the 52  youths trained under the Federal Government Amnesty programme as well as the fresh batches 100 graduating from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology ( NCAT), and the 40 from International Aviation College ( IAC), in Ilorin, Kwara State .

Meggison said unless something fast is done, such development constitutes  a disincentive to the growth and development of the Nigerian aviation industry .

He said well over 400  Nigeria licensed  aircraft engineers are also out of job, urging the Federal Government to put in place an employment policy that would ensure these aviation professionals  are engaged by both indigenous and foreign carriers operating in the country .

Meggison said though, some domestic carriers have done well and are engaging some of the pilots but there still room for improvement.

He said an enabling policy that would check the influx of foreign pilots and engineers   by foreign carriers.

Meggison said there are over 1,000 foreign pilots engaged by both local and foreign registered airplane  flying in Nigeria .

He stated that apart from the 1,000 foreign pilots , there are over 500 foreign aircraft engineers  employed in the country .

 “The  government  should compel foreign carriers to set up a line station for aircraft maintenance in the country and employ local engineers to assist in turning around  the growth of the sector .They should  look into other avenues also, if policies are not put in place the challenge of unemployment of pilots and engineers may not be resolved as soon as possible”- said he. 

SAHCOL OBTAINS EU ACC3 VALIDATION

SAHCOL's equipment at the airport

One of the big players in the ground handling services  in Nigeria’s aviation industry, Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL)  has clinched the enviable European Union ACC3 Validation. According to a statement from SAHCOL, “European Union (EU) has designated the Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) as a 3rd country European Union Aviation Security Validated Regulated Agent. The validation certificate was issued to SAHCOL after an onsite confirmation of the implementations of the security controls, which were certified to be in compliance with the objectives of EU/EEA bound air cargo and air mail.”

 The statement also explained that according to the EU regulations 173/2012 and 1082/2012, all air cargo and air mail entering the European Union from Third  Countries Airports, otherwise called ACC3 should be validated and approved by the appropriate authority from a European Union state to be able to transport secured cargo to the European Union.

 ACC3's are obliged under EU regulation EU1082 to ensure that cargo and mail destined for the EU is screened or comes from a secure supply chain. From 1st July 2014, the EU regulations state that ACC3's must be in possession of security verifications of their cargo and mail operations at the relevant non-EU airports. This verification activity must be undertaken by an Independent Validator, certified by an EU regulator.

By this validation, all customers using the SAHCOL warehouse are ensured of reliable security verification of all air cargo & mail operations bound for countries under the European Union.

Passengers deserve kingly treatment-Air Peace Chairman

One of the newest domestic airlines in Nigeria, Air Peace has said that passengers should be treated as kings not otherwise because of their patronage which brings sustainability of the airline operations globally.

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace Limited, Allen Onyema, in an interview with Aviationages  said the airline brought healthy competition into the aviation industry with strife to treat customers like kings. “With Air Peace, it is not business as usual where people are kept at the airport for hours and at the end of the day nobody cares about them. We are putting our best to be sure our passengers are well catered for hence, passengers should be treated like kings”- he said

Concerning the effort being made, he explained that the airline has come with on-time departure and passengers’ enlightenment which could be better anyway. “All what we are doing is for the passengers to get value for their money. We are not there yet. Like I said, we are still improving so that Nigeria flying public will get value for their hard earned money’.

Arik Air configures CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft to boost operations

Arik Air's CRJ1000

Arik Air has stepped-up its game by injecting a newly configured Bombardier’s CRJ1000 NextGen into its operation for passengers’ comfort and  exciting travel experience. According to a statement from Bombardier, “Bombardier  Commercial Aircraft announced that Arik Air of Lagos, Nigeria has placed the first dual-class CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft configured with three-abreast business-class seating into service in West Africa. Arik Air will use the CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft to increase network service on its most popular business routes in West Africa.”

Expressing his satisfaction Dr. Michael Arumemi-Ikhide, Group Chief Executive Officer, Arik Air said, “Configured to offer the very best in-flight comfort and style for our passengers with 10 premier,     three-abreast, business-class seats and 81 economy-class seats, the CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft also provides a high degree of operational flexibility to enhance our service, with a reduced environmental footprint to promote greener, more sustainable aviation,” “Deployed to increase frequencies between our more popular business routes from daily, to twice-daily flights, we are also using the aircraft to launch a third daily flight on our popular Lagos to Accra service.”

“Designed to meet the needs of airlines in high-frequency regional markets, the CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft has established a reputation for excellent passenger comfort, while delivering outstanding fuel economy and up to 10 per cent cash operating cost advantage,’’ said Mike Arcamone, President, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “We are delighted to congratulate Arik Air on launching service with the first dual-class CRJ1000 NextGen aircraft with a three-abreast, business-class configuration. This cabin configuration showcases the true flexibility of the CRJ1000 NextGen regional jet and is the key to achieving the highest passenger comfort and increased revenues.”