Federal Government has penalised a British airline, Flairjet, for operating commercial flights into Nigeria without approval.
MDB on May 17 reported that the aircraft belonging to a UK-owned aviation company, Flair, was impounded for operating for commercial purposes, despite only getting approval for humanitarian operations in Nigeria.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, announced this new development on Sunday via his Twitter handle.
He said the airline contravened section 1.3.3 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NCAR) 2015.
Flairjet were found to violate our Civil Aviation Regulations IS 1.3.3(a) Table 2(IV)7(a) and IS 1.3.3 (a) Table 2(VIII)(4). The maximum penalty for each is N500,000:00K. We caused them to pay and reported their callous misdemeanor to UK CAA, MFA and the UK High Commission.☹️😡🇳🇬
— Hadi Sirika (@hadisirika) May 24, 2020
Part of the NCAR referred to states that;
Any person, other than a person conducting an operation in commercial air transport or international commercial air transport, who violates any provision of the Civil Aviation Act, these Regulations, or any order issued thereunder, is subject to a civil penalty imposed by the Authority in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Aviation Act and these Regulations.
Other sub-sections added that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority can issue a “Warning Notice” or a “Letter of Correction” which states its decision and the necessary corrective actions.
It would be recalled that on May 18, the ministry announced that the pilots of the aircraft, a Legacy 600 with registration number GPRFX, have been subjected to 14 days quarantine.
Operation of commercial flights have been banned in the country since March, as part of measures to prevent air transmission of coronavirus.
