The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has clarified that the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) delisted Nigeria from its Category One status under the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program because no Nigerian airline has operated direct flights to the United States for over two years.
This downgrade means that Nigerian carriers will not be able to fly directly to any U.S. city or airport until Nigeria is re-audited, re-certified, and returned to its previous status.
Nigeria originally attained the U.S. FAA Category One Status in August 2010 after a rigorous five-year assessment process. However, the loss of this status has been attributed to a decline in aviation standards and the fact that no Nigerian airline has operated direct flights to the United States for seven years.
In a statement released by Chris Najomo, the Acting Director General of the NCAA, it was explained that to operate flights to the U.S., Nigeria must pass the IASA programme and achieve Category One status, like most countries.
“Upon attaining this status, Nigerian airlines would be permitted to operate Nigerian-registered aircraft and dry-leased foreign-registered aircraft into the United States, in line with the existing Bilateral Air Services Agreement,” Najomo said.
He added, “The first time Nigeria attained Category One status was in August 2010. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration conducted another safety assessment of Nigeria in 2014. A further safety assessment was conducted on Nigeria in 2017, after which Nigeria retained her Category One status.”
However, as of September 2022, the U.S. FAA decided to remove countries from the Category One list if they did not have an indigenous airline operating flights to the U.S. or carrying the airline code of a U.S. operator for two years. Countries not receiving technical assistance from the FAA due to non-compliance with international safety standards were also delisted.
“No Nigerian operator has provided service into the United States using a Nigerian-registered aircraft within the two years preceding September 2022, so it was expected that Nigeria would be delisted, as were other countries who fell within this category. Nigeria was, therefore, delisted since 2022 and was duly informed of this action in 2022,” Najomo explained.
Najomo emphasized that the delisting does not reflect any safety or security deficiencies within Nigeria’s aviation oversight system. “The de-listing of Nigeria has absolutely nothing to do with any safety or security deficiency in our oversight system. Nigeria has undergone comprehensive ICAO Safety and Security Audits and recorded no Significant Safety Concern or Significant Security Concerns respectively,” he noted.
Najomo further stated that Nigerian operators could still fly to the U.S. using aircraft wet-leased from a country that currently holds Category One status.
