NCAA Monitor Jet-A1 Delivery to Airlines –

says debtor airlines responding to payment deadline

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said it monitors every single fuel delivered to the aviation sector and then consumed by airlines.

This is against the allegation by Airline Operators of Nigeria (NCAA) that fuel marketers had been supplying kerosene in place of aviation fuel (Jet-A1) to the airlines.

NCAA

Muhktar Usman, a pilot and the director-general, NCAA, said on Monday that though, there was only a little difference between Jet-A1 and kerosene, but the Authority’s inspectors, aircraft engineers and even the pilots would not allow any contaminated fuel to be used for airline operations.

According to him, the quality control of aviation fuel starts from the petroleum ministry, and it will be very difficult to exchange the two commodities.

“First of all, I will have to say that Jet A-1 is the highest grade of kerosene and is also kerosene even though it is not for domestic use. Having said that, aviation fuel quality control goes from the department of petroleum to the oil marketers, and on our own side, we do ramp inspection and do random checks on fuel qualities that are being supplied.

‘’In addition, the engineers that release aircraft also do their own checks, and off course, the pilots during re-fuelling do their own checks to ensure that the grade that we get is what is required for safe operations of our aircraft in Nigeria.

“So, NCAA as the regulatory body is doing everything possible to ensure that whatever quality of fuel that aircraft use in Nigeria are up to standard,” Usman said.

The audit that is being conducted on airlines is not as a result of the Bristow crash, he said, explaining that it is a continuous process that does not wait for accident to happen.

On threat to publish names of debtor airlines soon, he said the airlines were already responding and willing to reconcile and reschedule their payments.

It is believed that the operators are indebted to the Authority to the tune of over N4 billion.

“We have a lot of responses from all the debtor airlines. They are willing to come forward and reconcile their accounts and also make commitments in terms of either in rescheduling and given us a definite payment plans.

‘’Safety is about seeing a trend and arresting that crime that could lead to something that is not pleasant. That is why we carry out inspections, audits, monitoring, surveillance and so on. Audit is continuous process. We did not do it because there was a crash. So, it is an ongoing process and it is part of the responsibilities of the NCAA,” he said.