The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), on Thursday, suspended Azman Air over its failure to renew its Air Operator Certificate (AOC).
The suspension is coming few months after the NCAA suspended the AOC of Dana Air over frequent incidents.
Website of the Airline as at 10:43am on Thursday morning, showed that all flights in and out of the airline’s routes have been cancelled.
It was, however, gathered that the AOC of the airline had expired in the first quarter of 2022 and regulatory agency through its inspectors had been working with the airline for the renewal process, which the airline consistently failed.
It was also gathered that before the regulatory agency suspended the operating license of the airline, the Directorate of Air Transport Regulation (DATR), a department in NCAA, had written a reminder letter to the management of Azman Air and issued it 30-daysultimatum to comply with the industry standards, but failed to comply.
With the suspension of Azman Air, three commercial airlines’ operations have been stopped in the last three months.
Firstly, it was Aero Contractor, who announced suspension of its operations, citing non-availability of forex and hike in cost of aviation fuel, also known as Jet A1.
Also, the NCAA announced the suspension of Dana Air over safety concerns and thereafter Azman Air over failure to renew its AOC.
Effort to confirm what led to the suspension of Azman Air from the Airline’s chairman, Alhaji Abdulmunaf Sarina, proved abortive as text messages sent to his phone were not replied.
Also, calls placed to the director general of NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, were not connecting as our correspondent was asked to drop a voice message at press time.
