Azman Air had shut down operations after nine years due to its inability to access forex to service the aircraft in it’s fleet, making it the second operator to close it’s business in the last four years.
Industry sources revealed that four of the airline’s planes have been in repairs but that they were unable to get it back due to lack of forex.
However, the airline’s spokesperson, Nurudden Aliyu, said the airline would soon resume flights as the management only suspended its operations due to its inability to bring back its aircraft that were flown out for repairs.
But industry sources said the reason for the shutting down of the airline is due to the inability of the operator to access foreign exchange and that the Chairman of the airline, Abdulmunaf Yunusa, has informed the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) of its decision to stop its operations.
The airline still has a valid Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) with the NCAA, which expires at the end of August and according to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs), any operator that fails to renew its certificate would lose it after 90 days.
The management of the NCAA has reportedly been holding a series of strategy meetings with the management of Azman Air since Tuesday on its decision to quit operations.
Azman has been in turbulence for a while since it was established nine years ago. It has suspended operations more than three times in the last one year.
NCAA had in the last two years, suspended operations for various reasons, which included its N1.2 billion debt to the regulator.
The airline had to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NCAA in the first quarter of 2022 on how it would be paying back the said amount.
The airline had accused it of non-remittance of Ticket Sale Charge and Cargo Sale Charge (TSC/CSC).
Also, on August 3, 2023, a memo, signed by Magaji Misau, its Human Resource Manager, with the title: ‘Placement of Leave Without Pay,” asked all of staff to proceed on leave with an exception of an under listed eight names.
The letter read: “As you are aware, our domestic operations has been put on hold for a while due to the conveyance of our aircraft for C-checks and the MROs has given a longer time of completion.
“In view of the above, the management directed to write and communicate its decision that all staff have been placed on leave without pay with effect from August 1, 2023.”
Meanwhile, the Director General of the NCAA, Capt Musa Nuhu, while speaking with aviation reporters, said the revised regulation that stimulates that going forward, a new airline must have a minimum of six airplanes is not restricted to start ups, but that existing airlines have a period by which they have to comply.
He said that if airlines have three aircraft for instance and lose one out of it, it has become a problem to meet up with their operations and then they start to have issues with flight delays, cancellations, and eventual suspension of operations.
“The number of aircraft you will have will depend on the kind of operations you want to do. You can imagine somebody who comes in with just one or two aircraft and one of the aircraft goes out of business, and sells tickets to the passengers, think of what will happen. For you to have six aircraft, it shows you have very strong financial backgrounds of running an airline.
“If everybody has one or two aircraft, we will keep having this recurring problem. We have to avoid that. People will criticize, but every country is different.
“We have to look at our own peculiar history and try to come up with solutions, but regulations are not cast in stone. If the situation changes, the regulation would be reviewed accordingly. Whenever it is necessary, we don’t have to wait for five years before we make amendments,” he said.
