Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development, says the federal government may seize Dana Air’s assets to refund passengers and travel agents whose funds remain trapped.
The minister spoke on Tuesday in Abuja during the ministry’s fourth-quarter stakeholders’ engagement, themed “leveraging public feedback to drive excellence in aviation services”.
Keyamo said he will also instruct the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to investigate why the affected refunds have not been processed.
He explained that the suspension of Dana Air’s operations was taken to avert a potential tragedy, noting that the decision was made in favour of safety over commercial considerations.
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Keyamo said the administration received “damning reports” on Dana Air’s safety record and operational standards during its review of the airline’s status.
He said the NCAA had decided to ground the airline, but he urged the authority to prioritise passenger safety based on the findings before them.
According to him, “for Dana, the problem is that it was a choice between safety and disaster.”
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“So we didn’t take the commercial thing as a priority. The priority was safety and we all looked at the damning reports that we met on the table,” he said.
“It was a decision of the NCAA to suspend them, but I pushed them to say, look, these are the reports we are seeing on the table about safety record, about lack of standards that put the lives of Nigerians at risk.
“If they continue flying, I don’t know whether most of us will be here. Many of us would have been victims of one of those flights. God forbid.”
Keyamo said he has directed Chris Najomo, acting director-general of the NCAA, to identify how passengers and ticket agents can be refunded.
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The minister added that he has “asked Najomo to dig deep to find out how those passengers and agents will be refunded. He has to dig deep on that”.
“One solution will also be that if that same individual or those entities are trying to come back to aviation under any guise, whether to go and register a new AOC or use any business within the aviation sector, they have to go and settle their debts first,” he said.
“We should look at their assets. There are assets that are still available. Let them sell their assets.
“Let’s cannibalise their revenue and pay people. Let’s find a way to go after their assets and get money to pay Nigerians who are owed.
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“NCAA should do that because they can’t get away with it.”
On April 24, 2024, the NCAA was directed by Keyamo to suspend the operations of Dana Air, following an incident involving the airline’s plane at Lagos airport a day before, which veered off the runway.
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Two days later, Keyamo said internal reports, which were done two years before the incident, showed that Dana Air was unfit to fly, adding that the consistent incidents experienced by the airline made him call for a suspension.
‘TINUBU HAS APPROVED SPECIAL FUNDING FOR NAMA TO ACQUIRE EQUIOMENT’
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Keyamo also said President Bola Tinubu has approved special funding for the acquisition of equipment for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
He said the new financing approach removes NAMA’s equipment procurement from the annual budget cycle.
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Also, Ahmed Farouk, the director-general (DG) of NAMA, said the agency now has a fully functional flight calibration unit for validating instrument approach procedures.
Farouk, represented by John Tayo, director of air traffic services, said NAMA has also signed agreements with Sierra Leone and Liberia to support calibration services in line with ICAO requirements.
He said the agency has approved night operations until 10pm at the airports in Owerri, Enugu, Yola, and Ilorin.
Farouk added that the approvals follow calls from stakeholders to extend operating hours beyond Lagos and Abuja.
He also said that ad-hoc approval has been granted to Air Peace for flights to Anambra and Asaba.
“We are always available to grant extension because of our capacity. For now, we will not be able to operate all the airports in the country till 10pm,” he said.
The DG said following Keyamo’s directive, operations have remained open till 10pm at the aforementioned airports.
