FG to ground private jets with foreign registration.

The Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka, on Tuesday said the Federal Government is to ground private jets registered in foreign numbers, but engage in commercial operations in the country. Also to be affected by this new policy are Nigerian registered private jets that engage in “hire and reward”. 

This new policy will come into effect as from Thursday, February 5, 2015.This is coming as the government has mandated all airlines operating in the country to henceforth have Nigerian pilots in their cockpits

Chidoka revealed this directive in Lagos at the launching of the “Aviation Commits Initiative”, which he said would help to close some gaps in the system.

He said that at the moment, there are 90 foreign registered aircraft in the country with additional 111 Nigerian registered carriers currently in use in the system, stressing that some of them have diverted from their operational certificates.

He decried that their diversion from their operational certificates has led to loss of massive revenues to the federal government and urged them to regularise their papers before the Thursday deadline. He said “ if by February 5, 2015, the affected airlines failed to regularize their papers as expected, the federal government through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, would ground their operations and revoke their licences.” 

VANGUARD