Key highlights
- No Nigerian airline currently operates in Europe and America due to restrictions imposed by the European Union and America’s Federal Aviation Administration.
- European Union imposes Third County Operators (TCO) permits on African carriers, creating bottlenecks for airlines from the continent to operate in Europe.
- Whenever a Nigerian airline intends to operate in the United States, the FAA carries out an audit of the NCAA, which limits the expansion of Nigerian airlines to Europe and America.
The former Acting Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Capt. Abdullahi Sidi has explained why no Nigerian airline currently operates in Europe and America.
According to him, the imposition of various restrictions by the European Union (EU) and America’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are some of the major reasons African airlines, especially Nigerian carriers, don’t operate in Europe and America.
Speaking with Nairametrics in an interview over the weekend in Lagos, Sidi observed that at present, no Nigerian airline operates anywhere in Europe, even though many European carriers operate into multiple designations in Nigeria.
The restrictions: He explained that European Union impose Third County Operators (TCO) permits on African carriers, which created bottlenecks for airlines emanating from the continent to operate in the European market.
Sidi further said that some of these restrictions are placed on the African airlines by Europe and America for economic reasons.
Nigerian airlines limited: He also pointed out that whenever any Nigerian airline intends to operate in the United States, the FAA would carry out an audit of the NCAA, stressing that all these limits the expansion of Nigerian airlines to Europe and America. He said:
- “As we are now in Nigeria, no Nigerian airline flies to any part of Europe, while we have many European airlines fly into Nigeria to even multiple destinations within the country.
- “The question here, is, why? I know, because I know, European airlines don’t want any Nigerian Airline to fly to Europe, simply because of economic reasons.
- “Plus, typically, we don’t help ourselves, European Union for reasons best known to them have put unnecessary requirements on African airlines called Third County Operators permit (TCO). This has created a lot of bottlenecks for African Airlines to operate in European markets.
- “Another issue that I know very well is in the event, a Nigerian airline wants to operate to the United States, that’s when the FAA, will now want to come and audit the Nigerian CAA.”