The number of private business aircraft operating in Nigeria has risen from 44 in 2005 to 157 in 2024, an investigation has revealed.

This was just as the Ministerial Task Force on Illegal Air Charter Operations fingered high net-worth individuals and foreign registered aircraft as culprits.

The spokesman of the task force, Mr Roland Iyayi, at a briefing on the preliminary finding of the task force, disclosed that the committee uncovered the prevalence of illegal charter operations in the country.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, in June, 2024 set up the task force, chaired by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi.

Other members of the task force are the Special Assistant to the Minister, Obafemi Bajomo; and the CEO Gyro Air, Captain Daniel Quansah.

This followed complaints of illegal charter operations in the country’s airspace with the attendant loss of revenues to the federal government.

Daily Trust reports that private jet operators like high net-worth individuals and big companies were given permits for non-commercial flight by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which does not allow them to use aircraft for commercial operations, otherwise known as “hire and reward”.

However, many of them flout the dictates of the permit by giving out their aircraft for hire and reward while denying legitimate air charter operators licensed for that purpose their businesses and expected incomes.

The task force, therefore, swung into action and made some preliminary findings, including the fact that many private jet owners use their planes to conduct commercial flights against the dictates of their permit.

Captain Sanusi stated that illegal charter operations undermined the safety and integrity of the aviation industry, and by extension the entire country.

Sanusi disclosed that the task force had in the past two weeks been gathering data from informed sources and invited memos from members of the public and stakeholders with a promise of strict confidentiality.

Presenting the task force’s preliminary findings, Iyayi said, “We have uncovered the prevalence of illegal charter operations.

“Even more alarming is the fact that we have uncovered that these illegal air charter operations are not only restricted to small time operators, but also include some high net-worth individuals using their private jets. The most complicit are foreign registered aircraft that do not come under the purview of NCAA.

“NCAA also lacks the facility to do proxy monitoring of these private jets, and the federal government has incurred huge losses in terms of revenue in the last two decades.”

Iyayi also revealed that those involved in illegal charter operations used “opaque passenger manifesting” to hide the identities of passengers on board by using the name of the aircraft’s owner or a personality and others which is a strange way of preparing passengers’ manifest.” (Daily Trust: Text, Excluding Headline)

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