Chanchangi Airlines (NCH, Kaduna) appears to be making another attempt to return to commercial operations, having been re-issued with an air transport license (ATL) by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The Nigerian carrier, which the NCAA grounded in 2013, was granted an ATL by the NCAA on April 22, 2021, valid for five years until April 22, 2026. It entitles the airline to operate domestic and international scheduled and non-scheduled passenger and cargo air services.

NCAA Director-General, Musa Nuhu, confirmed: “Chanchangi wants to come back and they want to use ATR - Avions de Transport Régional (turboprops). They are planning to come back. The demand is there,” reported The Nation.

As previously reported by ch-aviation, Chanchangi was forced to suspend service in October 2013 after the NCAA grounded all airlines that only operated with one aircraft in the wake of an Associated Aviation (SCD, Lagos) crash in September that year. At the time, Chanchangi had three aircraft – two B737-300s and one B737-500 – but two aircraft had been in maintenance. Chanchangi pledged to restart flights, but it never managed to do so.

The airline was founded by Ahmadu Chanchangi, who died in April 2017 following a long illness. He had owned 94% of the airline, with the rest owned by four other individuals, each holding a 1% stake.

He had started the airline in 1994, headquartered in Kaduna, operating flights from Kaduna, Lagos, Owerri, Abuja, and Port Harcourt Awolowo using B727-200s. International flights from Kaduna to Abidjan, Accra, Dakar Blaise Diagne International, Douala, and Malabo were added in 2004, while services from Lagos to Accra followed in 2006. By 2007, the airline counted 780 employees. Three B737-200s and two B737-300s were acquired in 2009.

Following a report that it was unsafe, the airline was temporarily grounded in December 2005. It recorded multiple safety incidents and near-accidents in mid/late 2007. Amongst these were a cockpit fire and an engine blade breaking off during a flight. To ensure better safety, the Nigerian government in 2007 required all airlines to be recapitalised. Chanchangi complied but was temporarily grounded again in 2010 for having only one aircraft in service. In 2012 its aircraft was grounded again after Ethiopian Airlines (ET, Addis Ababa International) filed charges against it for unpaid maintenance services.