Air workers protest Dana’s regional flight bid

THE National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) has organised a solidarity rally to the operational headquarters of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)], Lagos over moves by Dana Air to commence regional flights from the Murtala Mohammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2).

NUATE’s Deputy President, Williams Ukah, who led the rally to the offices of all the aviation agencies in Ikeja, rounded it off at the NCAA headquarters where he listed some of the issues the union wanted management to look into.

Top on the issues were Dana Air’s request to commence regional flight operations from MMA2, training for technical staff, autonomy, staff claims and airlines’ indebtedness to NCAA.

The unions urged the NCAA not to accede to Dana’s request to operate a regional flight from the MMA2 to avoid incurring the wrath of labour in the sector.

The union hinged its opposition on the ground that the request negated aviation security at the Terminal and that the agreement between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the operator of the Terminal.

The agency’s Director of Finance and Accounts, Alhaji Nuhu Ozigi, on behalf of the Director General, Capt Usman Muhtar, received the protesters and affirmed that as a regulatory body, issue of staff training and re-training local or foreign was of utmost priority, but added that in compliance with the budgetary regulatory policy of the Federal Government, foreign trainings for technical staff needed approval from the Head of Service of Federation.

He promised that the management would look into the issue of Dana’s request critically before taking a decision on it.

He remarked that some technical staff from the critical sections of NCAA were currently at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, undergoing various relevant local trainings in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) recommendations.

On domestic airlines’ indebtedness in the face of government’s policy of, “debt recovery without disruption of flight operations”, he said the agency had put in place aggressive measures to recover debts from airlines.