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First Nation airline has confirmed an exclusive report of the Nigerian Current announcing the suspension of its flight schedule till further notice.
On August 5, 2016, Nigerian Current exclusively reported that the airline believed to be owned by All Progressives Congress(APC) chieftain, Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have suspended all its scheduled services due to its worsening financial crisis.
Nigerian Current noticed that the airline operations has been skeletal and cancelled its flights to Port Harcourt and delayed several Abuja bound flights. It has since been in long hour delays or in some cases merging flights.
A call to the communication desk of the airline put the blame on scarcity of aviation fuel to the airline epileptic operations .
But on Thursday, the airline announced suspension of its flight 24 hours after Aero Contractor announced the indefinite suspension of its own operations.
Muhtar Usman, director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), announced the suspension in a statement where he also explained Aero Contractor’s absence from the aviation scene.
Usman said First Nation was in the middle of an engine replacement programme for one of its aircraft.
“Another aircraft is due for mandatory maintenance as is allowable by NCAA,” Usman said.
“In these circumstances, these airlines clearly cannot continue to undertake schedule operations, hence the inevitable recourse to self-regulatory suspension.”
Usman said it is against the Nigerian civil aviation regulations for airline operators to carry out schedule commercial operation with only one aircraft, the reason both Aero Contractors and First Nation had to suspend operations.
He said NCAA would never compromise safety and security of airlines operations in the airspace, adding that every facet of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARS) and Standard and Recommended Practices (SARPs) must be adhered to with due diligence.
He explained that everything had been put in place to continue ensuring compliance.
