NCAA suspends Dana Air flight operations, withdraws ATL

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has announced the suspension of Dana Airlines’ Air Transport Licence (ATL) and Air Operator Certificate (AOC) indefinitely, with effect from midnight of Wednesday, 20th July, 2022.

According to the authority, the suspension was made pursuant to Section 35(2), 3(b) and (4) of the Civil Aviation Act, 2006 and Part 1.3.3.3(a)(1) of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs), 2015.

The suspension order, handed down by the Director General, Captain Musa Nuhu, has since been communicated to the management of Dana Airlines.

Nuhu notes that, “The decision is the outcome of a financial and economic health audit carried out on the Airline by the Authority, and the findings of an investigation conducted on the Airline’s flight operations recently, which revealed that Dana Airlines is no longer in a position to meet its financial obligations and to conduct safe flight operations.

“The NCAA acknowledges the negative effect this preemptive decision will have on the Airline’s passengers and the travelling public and seeks their understanding, as the safety of flight operations takes priority over all other considerations.”

It would be recalled that Nigeria’s oldest airline, Aero contractors also suspended its passenger flight operations indefinitely from today.

The company had stated that the suspension of its operations was due to the impact of the challenging operating environment on its daily operations.

In a reaction to the development, according to Vanguard, Aviation Analyst, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, stated: “Aero Contractors is the oldest airline in Nigeria and also the most successful in the non-scheduled operation services before they ventured into schedule operations, and since then they have been struggling to break through the bridges of operations couple the buy over by the Ibru family and then professionalism began to erode the company, coupled with mismanagement.

“The company have maintained a perfect safety record, they went into aircraft and maintenance had a succession in viable maintenance organization, they have a standard and well-equipped training school.

“As a company, they felt like rather than lose it all, they had to suspend a section of the business. It is a perfect decision, they have been with AMCON for sometimes and they are yet to come out of that problem. If they suspend flight operations to concentrate on other aspects of their operations which includes non-schedule operations which are profitable, aircraft maintenance agency and the aircraft training school which is doing well, I must commend them for being bold on this.”