The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority NCAA says it applied 90 sanctions between October 2014 to December 2017 for the violation of the civil aviation regulations.
Those sanctioned include 15 pilots, 5 cabin crew and 4 aircraft engineers.
Others are 5 airlines, 4 approved maintenance Organizations and suspension of a private security outfit among others.
The NCAA Director General,Captain Muktar Usman who was speaking at the Quaterly breakfast meeting of the Aviation Safety RoundTable Initiatives in Lagos said anything that would undermine the safety and security of the industry would not be tolerated by the regulatory authority.
Captain Usman who was represented at the event by the Director, Consumer Protection, NCAA Mallam Adamu Abdullahi noted that with robust regulation,regime of sanctions, proper scrutiny of application of the Air Operators certificates, AOC, well trained aviation inspectors the industry had recorded a decline in accidents and incidents.
The NCAA boss stressed that there was no going back in the enforcement of the regulation to consolidated on the safety record so far achieved in the past four years.
He said the accident free years had been due to,” development of global strategies for safety in air transportation, maintenance of standards and recommended practices,SARPS, monitoring of safety trends and indicators, implementation of targeted safety Programmes, safety information sharing etc”.
On the state of the industry, Captain Usman said there have been stability, zero accident, robust regulatory oversight and increased in passenger volume.
” there have also been lower insurance premium, more applications for air operators certificate, renewed confidence in air travel and opening up of new routes by Nigerian airlines in the region and outside the continent”, he added.
In the area of professionalism, he said there had been an increase in the number of pilots licensed, air traffic controllers, cabin crew and a reduction in the number of expatriate pilots.
“In January-December 2016 was 2,226 while 2017 2,356, certificate of validation was nil in 2016 while in 2017 it was 46. Expatriate pilots 2016, it was 631, 2017, it was 609, aircraft maintenance engineers, 1532 in 2016, 1484 in 2017″.
Licensed cabin crew,1888 in 2016, 1946 in 2017, Licensed flight dispatcher, 543 in 2016, 2017, 602, Air traffic controllers, 2016, 313, 2017, 329, flight engineers only 14 in 2017. Others are Licensed air traffic electronic personnel 254 in 2016 while in 2017 we had 319 and licensed aeronautical station operators were 100 in 2016 and 101in 2017”.
