……..it is a great achievement and milestone for us…Iheanacho
…….we have skilled and qualified pilots for service delivery
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, today formally presented an Air Operator Certificate, AOC, to Genesis Global aviation Limited,GGAL, an helicopter company to commence commercial flights operations.
Director of Operations, NCAA, Captain Abdullahi Sidi who represented the Director-General, NCAA, captain Mukhtar Usman presented the AOC to the elated chairman Mr. Emmanuel Ihaenacho and other executive members of the company, at the NCAA annex in Lagos.
Mr. Ihaenacho, a marine captain in a chat with newsmen after the ceremony, said the award of AOC by the NCAA is a great achievement and a milestone for the company after a rigorous exercise and examination by the regulatory body.
He noted that the reasons for this is to ensure that the standards and regulations of the industry were meant to ensure the safety of lives, added that he was glad that the NCAA has certified them fit in line with global aviation standards and recommended practices to commence commercial operations.
“The aviation industry is one of the most regulated industry in the world and I understand the reason why that is the case because of the safety considerations in operating delicate aircraft, so if you make a little mistake there is no second chance to say I want to rectify it, so that is why it is a major challenge to anybody who wishes to invest in the industry and we feel that it is huge achievement for us to go through the five stages and to get to the point where they say yes, you have come the full way and we will issue you with an AOC certificate”.
The chairman who is also the accountable manager of the company also explained that apart from the AOC, the company has other certificates to carry on private operations for those who call for their services.
“What the AOC means I will like to say this to you is that we actually did have certification other than the AOC, we have AOP certificate which allowed us to operate our helicopter on a private basis, we have the PMC certificate which also allowed us to operate the helicopter on private basis but we have now convinced the system and the regulatory authorities that we have meant the standards for offering commercial services to whom so ever might require those equipments and that is why we are here to celebrate today”.
Entering the market with the current economic situation when some helicopter companies are falling out, Mr. Iheanacho observed that the situation is for the time being as there is bound to be a rebound believing in the resilience of the nigerian economy.
“we believe that what we are witnessing is just a deep for the time being and we believe that there is bound to be a rebound at some point in time. The future belongs to those who dare, who dares wins, so we dare and we are investing in the helicopter industry”.
With a fleet of 6 EC 155B helicopters, the company provides service for off and deep shore, surveillance for pipelines and power generating companies, ferry people who are sick, emergency medical evacuation or for general logistics of moving people and personnel from one point to the other among others.
According to the chairman, Genesis Global aviation Limited, captain Iheanacho, the company is replete with seasoned and highly skilled Nigerian helicopter pilots of over 15 years, trained and type rated in the EC 155B helicopters.
“They are expert Nigerians, we have Captian David Nwoke, captain yomi Coker, young man, really highly skilled and he has absolutely things moving those helicopters back and forth, so, we have a lot of highly skilled Nigerians that is not to say that if we need to have a foreigners, we will indeed reach and get them but for the time being, it is fully nigerian compliant”.
Brief background on Genesis Global Aviation
Genesis Global Aviation, a new start up Rotary wing aviation operator based at EAN hangers in Ikeja Lagos has just been granted AOC certification by the NCAA.
The company is mobilised to deliver safe, qualitative and cost effective commercial helicopter services to the general public incuding offshore oil industry service operators, EMS service operators, line surveillance ops. and others.
The company owns and operates a fleet of 6 nos EC155b Eurocopters and has plans afoot to acquire additional rotary assets to augment its service delivery.
