NAMA approves four airports to operate till 10.00 p.m.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said the Federal Government may go after the assets of Dana Air to refund passengers and airline travel agents.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has granted approval to Owerri, Enugu, Yola and Ilorin airports to operate till 10p.m.

The minister, while speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, directed the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to fashion out ways to refund passengers.

On why the authority suspended the operations of the airline, Keyamo revealed that the suspension was a choice between safety and disaster.

He added,“So we didn’t take the commercial thing as a priority. The priority was safety and we all looked at the damning reports we met on the table. It was a decision of the NCAA to suspend them, but I pushed them to say, look, theseare 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.

“I have asked Najomo to dig deep to find out how those passengers and agents will be refunded. 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.”

Keyamo hinted at reviewing Dana Air’s assets, saying, “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.

“NCAA should do that because they can’t get away with it.”

THE NAMA approval followed calls by stakeholders to increase the time for flight operations into other airports other than Abuja and Lagos airports.

The Director-General, NAMA, Ahmed Farouk, disclosed that an ad-hoc operation has also been given to Air Peace operations to Anambra and Asaba airports.

He said: “We are always available to grant an extension because of our capacity. For now, we will not be able to operate all the airports in the country till 10 p.m. But following your directive, sir, we started till 10 p.m. with those airports I mentioned.”

Also, the minister disclosed that the President has approved special funds for the provision of NAMA equipment.

“This means that the provision of NAMA equipment is being moved from budgetary provisions into special funds,” he noted.

Highlighting the progress made, the NAMA DG, who was represented by the Director of Air Traffic Service, John Tayo, said they provided a fully functional flight calibration unit, which is used to calibrate navigational aids and validate the instrument approach procedure.