Nigeria's Aero Contractors to restart flights

Nigeria's Cally Air to resume ops - report

Nigeria's Cross River state government says its dormant virtual carrier Cally Air (Calabar) will resume operations at Calabar airport to cater for an expected surge in passenger demand over the upcoming Calabar Festival period. According to the News Nigeria outlet, Cross River's commissioner for aviation, Eno Utum Inah, said flights would restart on November 30.

The airline, a joint venture between the state government and Aero Contractors (N2, Lagos) (also the operator), lost the municipality's support earlier this year amid a dispute regarding the attachment of a B737-300 over NGN900 million naira (USD1.2 million) in outstanding service fees.

In the interim, Aero Contractors has continued to use aircraft bearing Cally Air's livery on its own services. Aero Contractors is a general aviation operator with fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and MRO businesses. Earlier this month, a Cally Air liveried B737-300 skidded off the runway after landing at Abuja. That particular aircraft, 5N-BYQ (msn 30334), is one of two -300s operated by Aero on Cally Air services.

ch-aviation has contacted Aero Contractors for...

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Nigeria adjusts fleet size regulations for all airlines

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has introduced new regulations requiring all scheduled passenger airlines - start-ups and established carriers - to operate at least six aircraft to ensure they have the financial and operational capacity to maintain reliable and regular operations.

This was the word from NCAA Director-General Musa Nuha during an online news briefing over the weekend, reports The Cable and Punch newspaper. He said the new requirement applied to new entrants and existing airlines, the latter having been given a deadline to comply with the new policy.

Nigeria previously required scheduled passenger operators to have only three aircraft before commencing commercial operations, but Nuha said this was insufficient to ensure reliable service. "The problem is that a lot of the airlines don't even have the capacity to meet current financial obligations," he explained. With only three aircraft, he said, operators struggled to meet service obligations when one or two units went out of service, resulting in cancellations and flight delays. "If everybody has one or two aircraft, we will keep having this recurring problem. We have...