The Corporate Communications Manager, Dana Air, Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa who told journalists in Lagos today said that the exercise, which is carried out every two years was necessary for improved safety.
Barely two days after Sahara Reporters exclusively reported the suspension of flight operations by Dana Air for recertification exercise by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the airline today said it has returned to service.
The airline also confirmed that it suspended operations because of the exercise, saying that the recertification entails rigorous exercise, which included total review of its operations from ground handling to quality assurance and particularly safety standards.
The Corporate Communications Manager, Dana Air, Mr. Kingsley Ezenwa who told journalists in Lagos today said that the exercise, which is carried out every two years was necessary for improved safety.
Kingsley said that the conclusion of the exercise will enable the airline to ease the pain of travellers who have had to bear the high cost of tickets as a result of flight shortage across the country.
He further commended NCAA for carrying out a thorough check on its operations before re-certifying the airline within the period, but lamented unfavourable reports within the period.
He explained that the airline was issued the certification by the regulatory body after giving it a clean bill of health, which on its own reassured its guests that its operations of 10 years experience in Nigeria’s airspace was no fluke.
He said: “We are however worried about some orchestrated and baseless stories that were circulated while the exercise lasted. Unfortunately the sponsors of the story displayed crass ignorance of simple regulatory exercise as a result of their mischievous intentions.
“For the records, Dana Air presently has five aircraft out of which two are undergoing mandatory maintenance, which in aviation is called C-checks. The safety and comfort of our guests comes first before any other consideration and we find such report really unnecessary.
“We advise the purveyors of such report to rather commend us, having served Nigeria for over 10 years and counting and showing massive commitment to changing the narrative about domestic airlines and Nigeria’s aviation industry as viable.”
He emphasised that plans had reached an advanced stage for the airline to acquire more aircraft in 2019 to increase its operations.
He also expressed that the airline had five aircraft in its fleet in which two are currently on C-checks abroad.
But, Sahara Reporters insists that the airline has just two aircraft operating in its fleet at the moment.
The aircraft are two MD 83 while the third it leased from ASKY Airline, Boeing 737 was grounded by NCAA barely 24 hours after its unveiling.
The regulatory authority had grounded the aircraft when it discovered that it wanted to operate a fight freedom flight with it, which is against the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulation (NCAR) Act 2006.