The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has announced that the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has delisted Nigeria from the Category One Status of the International Aviation Safety Assessment program due to the lack of Nigerian airlines serving direct routes to the U.S. for two years.
As a result of this delisting, Nigerian carriers are now unable to operate direct flights to any U.S. city or airport until they are re-audited and the FAA reinstates Nigeria’s former status.
Nigeria originally achieved Category One Status in August 2010 following a thorough evaluation process that lasted about five years. However, a decline in aviation standards and the absence of direct flights to the U.S. for seven years led stakeholders to express concerns over the country’s ratings.
In a statement, the Acting Director General of the NCAA explained that to secure operations in the U.S., Nigeria must successfully pass the International Aviation Safety Assessment Program, thereby regaining Category One status.
He emphasized that once this status is obtained, Nigerian airlines would be allowed to operate with both Nigerian registered and dry-leased foreign registered aircraft into the U.S., adhering to existing Bilateral Air Services Agreements.
The NCAA noted that Nigeria’s Category One Status was evaluated again in 2014 and retained in 2017. However, as of September 2022, the FAA removed countries from the Category One list that lacked indigenous operators providing services to the U.S. for two years.
Since no Nigerian airline had conducted services to the U.S. using Nigerian registered aircraft in the two years preceding September 2022, the delisting was anticipated. The NCAA received an official notification regarding this decision.
The NCAA clarified that the delisting does not indicate any safety violations and reiterated that Nigeria has passed all necessary Safety and Security Audits without significant concerns.
Furthermore, the NCAA noted that a Nigerian airline can still operate flights to the U.S. by wet-leasing aircraft from a country that currently holds Category One status.
