Dana Air concludes NCAA recertification exercise

Dana Air has concluded its recertification exercise conducted by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which began few weeks ago, with a promise of better service delivery.

The airline told its customers of a plan for additional flights to ease the pain of high cost of tickets as a result of flight shortage across the country.

Kingsley Ezenwa, Media and Communications Manager, Dana Air gave said this on Saturday in Lagos.

Ezenwa said “We have finally concluded our recertification exercise with the NCAA. Recertification in Nigeria’s aviation industry is a standard practice conducted every two years by the NCAA.

“During the period, an airline’s operation is totally reviewed from ground handling to quality assurance and particularly safety standards and we are glad to have scaled this rigorous process.’’

He commended the NCAA for carrying out a thorough check on the airline’s operations before recertifying them.

He noted that the exercise was a testimonial that its 10 years’ experience in Nigeria’s airspace was not a failure.

According to him, there is no iota of truth in the claim that the airline is facing operational challenges.

“For the records, Dana Air presently has five aircrafts out of which two are undergoing mandatory maintenance which in aviation is called C-checks.

“The safety and comfort of our customers come first before any other consideration and we find such reports really unnecessary.

“We advise the purveyors of such report to rather commend us, having served Nigeria for over 10 years and counting.

“Showing massive commitment to changing the narrative about domestic airlines and Nigeria’s aviation industry as viable.

“However, we really feel the pain of our customers who have had to travel by road as a result of the shortage of aircraft across the country and hike in fares.

“We wish to reassure them of our commitment towards putting an end to it in the coming year.

“At the moment, discussions with our financial partners are in top gear and very soon we will acquire some aircraft to add to our fleet.”

He said in the interim, the airline’s smart scheduling team had created additional flights to ensure that individuals, friends and families traveling this yuletide for business or leisure are not stranded.

“Our position having gone through the review is to continue to maintain our operational efficiency which we have come to be known for.

“We wish to sincerely apologise to our guests for the slight disruptions in flights during the course of our recertification,’’ Ezenwa added. (NAN)