Experts in the Nigerian aviation industry have accused private jet operators of converting their private jet to chartered services, thereby violating Section 18.2.4.3 of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) 2015.
This follows last week’s indictment of Flints Aero Services Ltd, a private jet company by the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) in its report on the crash.
A preliminary report released by NSIB had indicted Flints Aero Services Ltd, the airline that flew Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, one of the ministers in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet from Abuja to Ibadan Airport of violating the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) issued to it by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The report released by the agency indicated that the airline was issued a license to conduct a Permit for Non-Commercial Flight (PNCF), but violated it by operating chartered services.
Speaking on the issue, Capt. Ibrahim Mshelia, Chairman of Westlink Airlines, a chartered operator, accused the private jet operators of economic sabotage.
According to him, the NCAA needed to up its surveillance on the private jet operators, insisting that some of them engage in hire and reward against the license issued to them.
Mshelia stated that chartered operators pay NCAA 5% of their Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and other taxes required of them, but private operators evade this payment.
He insisted that it was an illegal conduct, which must be checked by the NCAA.
- He said: “People with AOCs will get your bill at the end of the day and you pay it over time and this goes to government coffers. However, these are totally off the radar of taxes and when last I checked tax evasion is still a crime.
- “Why will someone be operating and collecting money and not remitting the required 5%?”
Mr. Chris Amokwu, the aviation analyst, also claimed that some of the private jet operators fly as much as three to four times to different destinations within the country doing charter, despite claiming to be a private jet operator.
Like Mshelia, Amokwu said this is against the civil aviation rule on hire and reward and wanted the NCAA to beam its searchlight on the activities of some of the private jet operators.
- “They get a PNCF and someone flies this aircraft to Lagos three to four times a day. I’ve made this presentation to the CAA before.
- “If you are doing your surveillance properly, how does someone who has a private operator license go to Lagos three, four times daily? He takes off in the morning and flies all over Nigeria daily, you should suspect him.”
He challenged the NCAA to begin to ground the operations of any private jet that engages in such an act, maintaining that this could be easily detected by the apex regulatory body in the industry.
Flints Aero Services Ltd was issued the non-commercial certificate, which indicated that it cannot airlift passengers for commercial purposes.
But the airline went ahead to operate a chartered operation, which meant that it charged the minister and his team some amount of money to airlift them from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja to Ibadan Airport.
Adelabu and nine others, including two cockpit crew and one cabin crew, had on November 3, 2023, at about 10 pm, involved in an air crash at Ibadan Airport.
The aircraft had crash-landed into the bush during an effort to land at the airport.
