The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said the new aircraft leasing policy is already having positive impact on the nation’s aviation sector.
NCAA’s Director, Air Transport Regulation (DATR), Mrs Olayinka Babaoye-Iriobe stated this in Uyo during a retreat for the Directorate, themed: “Achieving Operational Excellence in Air Transport Regulation for Safety and Economic Sustainability.”
TheFactDaily recalled that the
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Barr. Festus Kayamo had in October 2024 signed the implementation of Irrevocable De-registration and Export Request Authorization (IDERA) haven signed the Cape Town Convention (CTC) in September 2024.
Both protocols has the potential to crash the cost of leasing aircraft, increasing fleet capacity in Nigeria thus reducing flights cancellation in the medium to long term.
With the new policy Nigerian airlines will now have easy access to aircrafts from leasing companies which would economically sustain the airlines.
The director said already airlines have started benefiting from the policy, which over time would tackle the problem of flights cancellations mostly caused by shortage of aircrafts in operations by airlines.
Mrs. Babaoye-Iriobe explained that the policy removed Nigeria from the Cape Town Convention (CTC) index which was below 49 percentage.
“What the honorable minister, Barr. Festus Kayamo has done is to, look at the Cape Town Convention to try and revisit it. And then to sign up and implement the IDERA which removed Nigeria from the Cape Town Convention low index.
“Since he signed the IDERA and started implementing it, our CTC index skyrocketed. When it was on 49, it was difficult for our airline to access the leasing company. So they were leasing aircraft at a very high rate. All those things impact on fares” she stated.
“We’ve even implemented it with one of our airline. IDERA will make it easy because before the IDERA implementation, some of our airline, they will lease aircraft, when it is time, they might not be able to sustain payment of the lease rental” she emphasized.
“And then when the lessor now wants to re-take the plane from them, they will run to the court to get an injunction to hold. So that was painting Nigeria in a bad light. Now, he has removed that. If there’s a default from the lessee, the lessor can come in and take the aircraft immediately, no question asked because we in NCAA, we will release it” she explained.
“So because my honorable minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development has done that, it has made Nigeria more amiable to the leasing company. At times, when you do certain things, the effect is not felt immediately” she said.
“But it will so that our operators will be able to access those aircrafts. Once they do, it will help this issue of lack of capacity because what is happening now is lack of capacity,” she stated.
The Director said from DATR’s evaluation process, Nigerian airlines are viable and financially sound as the Directorate of Finance, Directorate of Air Transport carry out routine visits to airlines for economic and financial audit and help to rectify areas of weakness to ensure safety.”
Babaoye-Iriobe stated that the process of acquiring airline licences and renewal has become easy and accessible as long as the airline operator meet all the required regulation and requirements.
“What we do as a directorate is to evaluate and to make sure they are still financially sound. You know, if they are not financially sound, then they will be cutting corners and then it will impact on safety” she said.
“In collaboration with Directorate of Finance, Directorate of Air Transport, we visit the airline to do an economic and financial audit of the airline. In all these cases, we now report back to the airline identifying or alerting them to areas that we perceive to be weaknesses so that they can quickly rectify it. Once those ones are rectified, it will help safety” she emphasized.
“Most airline currently have capacity issue. They don’t have enough aircraft, they are not able to access aircraft. And if there’s no aircraft, it will impact on the number of flights.
“The air transport license is renewable every five years, the air operator certificate also has its own years of renewal. What we do is to make sure that we remove hindrances for them when it comes to renewal.
“We try to speed it up while making sure that they meet all the required regulation and requirements. So it’s the ease of doing business. In my directorate, once you meet all the requirements, you can renew your licenses in less than a month.
“Another thing that we have done which the director general initiated is for the Directorate of Air Transport Regulation to have an electronic portal. Electronic portal is where you can submit, you can apply for any economic authorization online.
“Once you gather all your requirements together, you don’t have to come to the office, you can go online, apply for the licenses. Even when it comes to payment of the required processing fees, you just follow steps on how to do that.
“The only time for now that you will need to come to the office is if you want to get receipt for your proof of payment, because you still need an NCAA receipt. And once you get that, you can upload on the system, we review everything, we write to you.
“We’ve issued licenses in a month because the person meets all the requirements. We don’t joke with that,” she explained.
