Jimoh Ibrahim Tasks FG On IATA Membership For Airlines

Billionaire businessman and Chairman Air Nigeria, Barrister Jimoh, has called on the Federal Government to compel all airlines operating in Nigeria to be members of the International Air Transport Association, IATA, saying that it will improve safety in the aviation industry.

Ibrahim, whose airline has been a member of IATA for six years, argued that the IATA membership will compel airlines in Nigeria to earn the IATA Operational Safety Audit, IOSA, which will make them safer.

He said that many smaller countries in Africa compel their airlines to be IATA members before they are granted operational licences.

“Dana is not a member of IATA,” Ibrahim said, referring to the airline whose plane crashed on 3 June, killing everyone on board.

On the safety concerns over the age of the aircraft, Ibrahim said his plane are fairly new, adding: “I fly London with a 6-year old plane and I know an airline that flies with a 19-year old plane.”

He said that his airline has never and will never crash because it is safe.

“We’ve never had any crash and we will never crash, we will not kill Nigerians,” Ibrahim said at a press conference yesterday in Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

Ibrahim said that Air Nigeria with its 12 aircraft has never been involved in an emergency landing, adding that Air Nigeria has the highest safety audit certificate in the world and its safety standard is only comparable to that of British Airways.

“We have the same standard of British Airways. They are a member of IATA and we are a member of IATA. We have the same IOSA certificate,” Ibrahim said.

Ibrahim also waved a photocopied letter he said was from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, clearing his airline to resume domestic and regional operations after a sstrike by his aircraft engineers and pilots paralysed operations more than a week ago.

Air Nigeria pilots and engineers went on strike over unpaid salaries, but Ibrahim said, they were unreasonable and being used by competitors.

“We are taking people’s passengers and they will not just sit back. Those passengers are not coming from the moon, they are existing airlines’ passengers,” Ibrahim said, justifying his claims that competitors are trying to destabilise his operations.

The letter that Ibrahim brandished at the press briefing was signed by Engineer P.O. Ekunwe, Director of Airworthiness Standards at NCAA. It reads: “Please be informed that Air Nigeria has been cleared by Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to resume its normal domestic and regional flight operations.”

Ibrahim also disclosed that Air Nigeria will acquire another big plane next week, an Airbus 330-200, as he expands his operations to Paris and Rome.

Air Nigeria fleet will then boast of 13 planes, among them two big planes for their long haul operations.

He said that he has now completed a successful two-year turnaround of the airline.

“From two aircraft two years ago, we now have 13 aircraft and we are flying more routes,” he said.

—Simon Ateba