A report from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said that no fewer than 19,323 flights were delayed within the country’s airspace in the first half of 2018.

Within the same period, another 348 flights were cancelled among local and international airlines operating within and into the country.

Capt. Muhtar Usman, the Director-General of NCAA stated this yesterday in his presentation at the All Aviation Industry Information Managers’ Conference held at the agency’s annex office at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

The conference, which included information managers in the six government agencies, airlines, ground handling companies and media among others.

Usman noted that out of the 19,323 flights delays, domestic airlines had 16,880 while the remaining 2,443 was among the 33 foreign airlines operating into the country.

He emphasised further that within the same period, domestic airline operators cancelled 253 flights while their foreign counterparts had 95 flights cancelled.

In his statistics, Usman further noted that within the first half of the year, 17,893 delayed and missing baggage were recorded among the international airlines while the domestic operators had 25 delays and missing luggage.

He, however, said that the authority had warned airlines against unwarranted flight delays and cancellations, stressing that NCAA would not tolerate infringement on air travellers’ rights.

It would be recalled that flight delays and cancellations have been rampant in recent time with NCAA warning airlines against consistent violation of passengers’ rights.

Though, airlines had severally attributed inadequate infrastructure at most of the country’s airports to delays and cancellations, stressing that until the infrastructure gaps were improved upon, the delays and cancellation may continue.

However, statistics gathered indicated that Middle East, Qatar Air, Royal Air Maroc, Rwandair, Saudi Airline, Sudan Air, South African Airways, Turkish Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways were among the foreign airlines guilty of flight delays.

At the yesterday’s meeting, Usman also said that within the period, 20 aircraft were registered for commercial air transport while the other 10 were registered for General Aviation (GA).

He added: “Between January and June 2018, 10 aircraft were also deregistered by NCAA while another 12 were re-registered by the authority. We also issued 30 certificates of airworthiness and another 85 certificates of airworthiness were renewed by us.

“However, in an industry like us, there is need to improve on information dissemination among information managers in the system. Also, we require integrated communication among all information managers in the system particularly during incidences and near mishaps. This is necessary for NCAA to sustain robust regulation in the Nigerian aviation industry.”

•Sourced from a Daily Independent report

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