West Link Airline chief moves for ‘no expiry date’ AOC for airlines

THE Chairman of West Links airline, Captain Ibrahim Mshelia has called for an urgent amendment to the country’s act and policy guiding approval for an Air Operators Certificates (AOC) to qualified airline operators for commercial purposes.

This is just as he proposed that the AOC that will subsequently be issued by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) should have NO Expiry date unless suspended or revoked while the operations specifications should only have a biannual expiry, to shed unnecessary expenses to the operators.

Speaking at a seminar organised by the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) titled: ‘Nigeria’s Aviation Industry: Management, Policy and Regulation’, Mshelia stating how aviation standards, management, policy and regulations in the global aviation sector was being oversighted and supervised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), therefore believe that the seminar  will be able to review, dissect and fine-tune some of Nigeria’s existing practices, considered to either be retrogressive, archaic or not in conformity with the global rule of practice.

While the AOC according to Mshelia requires the operator to have personnel, assets and system in place to ensure the safety of its employees and the general public, the certificate will list the aircraft types and registrations to be used (Operations Specifications, Ops Specs), for what purpose and in what area – specific airports or geographic region- the operation is to hold.

Mshelia while faulting the present system which he described as rigid and also responsible for stagnating the growth of the sector cited which he said must be urgently amended.

His words: “The word AOC has been so over-valued like a village masquerade that appears once in five years. This is not supposed to be so. Operations specifications, in this regard, are the masquerade and not the certificate. I believe the speakers here today, and even the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) will agree with me in their subsequent comments.

“Today, we have an unhealthy situation where there is a blanket issuance procedure of AOC for big, small, or large operations. Under this system, the roles of other segments of operators that are also entitled, by law, to operate commercial operations, unfettered as guaranteed by ICAO, are not spelt out. By the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard, small, large and medium operations, including; Air Taxi, Air Charter, Cargo Only, nonscheduled and Scheduled operations etc, are recognised.”

He particularly mentioned how the ICAO does not discriminate because of the size of a nation as it allows several models of the size of the CAA of a country; small, medium or large CAA and thereby expecting “performance variance with the various sizes and accepts them into the comity of nations on the council.  In over-sighting also, ICAO has developed Checklist; small CAA, Medium CAA or large CAA.”

Faulting how in certifying operators in Nigeria one checklist is used for all, the airline Chief declared: “In order to enforce the norms and do all that is required to make our aviation sector conform with global norms, it is also expedient to ensure that we have the right staff with requisite experience to follow policy to letter and enforce it without fair or favour. ICAO has a model recommended in DOC 8335. CAAs are encouraged to use that scale. Nigeria should and must close that gap. It is a serious safety concern, similar to an unsafe aircraft or untrained crew, taking to the Skies.

“And in doing this, a thorough overhaul of the inspectorate division of our civil aviation agency becomes a sine-qua-non. This has to be done quickly, to galvanise the Nigerian aviation industry achievements. The staff of the agencies has done well so far but the new and desired NCAA will require a huge change of attitude as well.

“The AOC is hereby proposed to have NO Expiry date unless suspended or revoked while the ops specs only should have a biannual expiry, to shed unnecessary expenses to the operators. I will also suggest that only qualified technical staff in the agencies should be hired and paid salaries commensurate with their counterparts abroad. I am of the opinion that the sector can afford that if we employ only relevant personnel.

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