‘We Don’t Know Why We Are Suspended, The News Just Got To Us’

By Cami Ezenwa

‘We Don’t Know Why We Are Suspended, The News Just Got To Us’

Could it be possible for a regulator of a critical sector of the economy to take a punitive measure on an operator without duly informing them?

Well, that is the big question hovering over the reported suspension of an airline operator, Azman Air Services Limited by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The news in the public doman is that the airline was suspended by barely two months after the suspension of Dana Airlines on July 20, 2022, and the reason cited was that Azman Air Services was yet to renew its Air Operations Certificate (AOC).

But when The Eagle put a call through to a spokesman of the airline, Mr Habib Azman, he denied being aware of the real reasons why their operations were being suspended.

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He told our correspondent: “The news just came to us. We don’t know the reason why we have been suspended”.

A further check on the website of the airline, did not show any thing related to the said suspension by NCAA.

Instead, a notice on the home page of the operator, related to the issue of impending disruption of airline services due to aviation fuel scarcity.

The notice letter signed by AON spokesman, Obiora Okonkwo read in part:

“The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) wish to alert the public of impending disruptions to scheduled flight operations of members of the association.

“The development is being forced on members by the growing scarcity of aviation fuel popular as Jet-A!. “The scarcity is impacting negatively on seamless conduct of aviation transport operations and would lead to flight rescheduling and or cancellation”.

The Eagle reports that the issue of aviation fuel scarcity had reared its head from time to time since last May.

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This forced major airlines, under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), warning about the disruption of scheduled flight operations over both scarcity and rising cost of this premium oil.

The Eagle correspondent effort in getting the side of the NCAA is yet to materialise.