After being on lockdown for three months without salaries, Nigerian pilots are required to pay for recertification to be able to fly planes again.
This was the submission tabled at the briefing organised by members of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, where Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika divulged that domestic flights would no longer resume on June 21.
Addressing the committee, the National President of National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, Galadima Abednego, said many of the pilots had lost their currency as a result of the lockdown spanning about 75 days.
According to him, the pilots require $30,000 for re-currency or re-certification in the face of none payment of salaries.
“Most of the airlines have either disengaged their pilots during the lockdown or not able to pay them full salaries, treating us as modern day slaves.
Therefore, before restarting the sector, pilots and aircrafts must be re-certified for safety and security, which have not been done,” Abednego said.
Meanwhile, the Mnister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said a new date would be fixed after a report is submitted to the Task Force for review next week.
The minister, who was represented by the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu, said the ministry had developed and sent a circular to all stakeholders to develop a restart plan and submit to the regulatory body for review and approval depending on the business of the service providers.
According to him, the restart plan is meant to cover airworthiness, operations, passenger licencing, aviation security, safety management system, consumer protection, and air transport regulation.
“Currently, a lot of service providers have provided their restart plans and the plans are supposed to be reviewed by NCAA; the regulator of the industry.
We are going to review the documents and if we are happy with the documents, then we will go to each organisation to verify what they have given as their restart plan,” Sirika said.
He explained that the public health corridor concept was developed in collaboration with national health authorities including the Federal Ministry of Health, NCDC and Port Health Services in addition to guidelines from the World Health Organisation (who) and other international organisations.
“The Civil Aviation Authority despite all pressures coming from all quotas will not approve the start of operations at any date until we are sure and confirm that we are ready to start in a safe, secure, organise and efficient manner,” Sirika said.
Unions in the nation’s aviation sector at a meeting with the Senate Committee on Aviation in Abuja said the country was not ready for domestic flights to resume.
Others present at the meeting were: the National President of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Ahmadu Ilitrus, and the General Secretary of Joint Aviation Trade Union Forum, Nnamdi Hector; Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Smart Adeyemi.
