Policy On Charter Operation Unrealistic - Stakeholders





The Ministry of Aviation last Friday released the New Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP), which among other things  specified a more stringent scrutiny for private jet operations in the country. However, industry stakeholders have said some aspects of the new policy are not realistic and government would  be unable to sustain it.

Specifically, the new policy on non schedule or charter operations said, “For private aircraft owned or leased by individuals, only the family members of the owner/lessee of the aircraft will be permitted on board as passengers. For private aircraft owned or leased by companies or corporate entities, only the employees and members of the board of directors of the company will be permitted on board as passengers.  For aircraft belonging to non-scheduled or scheduled operators, only the employees and members of the board of directors of the company or the corporation may be permitted on board as passengers.”

According to the   President of Aviation Round Table (ART), Captain Dele Ore :“The Aviation minister has the right to formulate policies, but if such policies are bad, they will not stand the test of time.” He however said he has not read the policy to be able to analyse it.

However, an industry stakeholder who preferred anonymity, said the government might have come up with this policy because of the problem it has been having with non-scheduled operators some of whom might have used their aircraft to allegedly carry out criminal activities like money laundering among others.

“I don’t see the policy as totally right, what if one has friends or business associates and there was need to travel with them? It is not right for government to come up with such a policy,” he said.

Captain Tito Omawghomi, industry analysts said the new policy might have been formulated to checkmate the accesses of private jet owners alleging that some of them might have abused the privileges they were given by the government. He said what the government was saying with regards to the new policy was that passengers carried by private jets must be accounted for. Their identities must be known for security reasons.

His words, “We have heard how private jets have been used in the past to ferry out people from the country and how private jets have been used to take passengers from point to point as if they were commercial aircraft. It is because of these that government has decided to bring out a new policy to checkmate all these abuses”.



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