Technical experts from the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) arrived in the country yesterday to audit three domestic airlines, Arik Air, Virgin Nigeria and Bellview which had been designated to fly tthe Nigeria-US air route by the Federal Government.
The auditing is part of the conditions the airlines have to meet before they will be certified by the regulatory body, FAA to fly to United States.
What is known as auditing is kind of scrutiny by FAA to find out whether the airlines have the technical know-how, facilties, personnel and equipment to meet the conditions stipulated by United States for foreign airlines that fly into their country as commercial operators.
According to the rule also, FAA has to audit Nigeria’s regulatory agency, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, so when the team arrived yesterday it was made to witness a mock audit test for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the three Nigerian carriers designated on the lucrative American route.
The mock audit can be described as a dress rehearsal for the the main audit which is expected to take place between July 16 to July 20, 2007.
The mock audit is important because it sets the tone for the team of experts that would be coming later in the month and audit regulatory authority, the NCAA and the designated carriers to ensure they met the set out conditions.
The mock exercise is expected to last for two days. The exercise which centers around the International Air Safety Audit [IASA] is to enable the NCAA audit itself under the supervision of the FAA team which will in turn draw the attention of the authority to grey areas where adjustment needs to be made.
The exercise will also give the NCAA the chance to correct the grey areas for its subsequent preparation for the technical assessment of July 16th to 20th.
The Director-General of NCAA, Dr.Harold Demuren confirmed this yesterday on phone journalists but declined to give details of the exercise.
He said, “Yes, we are having our mock audit to put few things remaining in order, but I cannot give you for now details of the exercise”.
THISDAY gathered that during the mock exercise, the whole books of the authority will be audited under the FAA team, including the airlines designated on the American route.
It is expected that at the end of the mock test and the full audit starting from July 16th, the full certification for category one status of the country which will take eight months is expected to kick off.
Throughout the eight months, according to the NCAA boss, the FAA team will remain in the authority to scrutinise the working system of NCAA and ask quetsions where necessary.
It has to be noted that the auditing of NCAA is not peculiar to the regulatory aspect, but an international aviation law which must be obeyed by the regulatory aithority.
NCAA audited FAA when America’s airline, North American Airlines began to fly to Nigeria, it should be recalled.