The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has said that the federal government may go after the assets of Dana Air to refund trapped funds of passengers and airline travel agents.

The Minister, while speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, directed the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to fashion out ways to ensure passengers are refunded their money.

Keyamo, speaking on why the Authority suspended the operations of the airline, revealed that the suspension was a choice between safety and disaster.

He said, “For Dana, the problem is that it was a choice between safety and disaster. So we didn’t take the commercial thing as priority. The priority was safety, and we all looked at the damning reports that we met on the table.

“It was a decision of the NCAA to suspend them, but I pushed them to say, look, these are the reports we are seeing on the table about safety record, about lack of standards that puts 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. He has to dig deep on that.

“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.

“We should look at their assets. 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.”

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

The approval came after calls by stakeholders to increase time for flight operations into airports other than Abuja and Lagos.

The Director General of NAMA, Engr Ahmed Umar Farouk, disclosed that ad hoc operations have also been given to Air Peace operations to Anambra and Asaba airports.

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

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

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

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

He said they have also signed an agreement with Sierra Leone and Liberia to provide them with calibration and instrument approach procedure validation in accordance with ICAO standards. (The Guardian)

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