Turkish Airlines complies with NCAA’s directive — two days before suspension

December 14, 2019 12:09 pm

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The Turkish Airlines has complied with the directive of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) two days before the suspension of its operations in the country.

The NCAA had said the airline will not be allowed to operate in Nigeria from December 16 if it did not meet set regulations.

The agency said the airline would not be allowed to operate if it does not fly with the right size of aircraft that can transport all passengers with their baggage at the same time.

In a Twitter post on Saturday, Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, said the airline has flown a bigger aircraft to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, in compliance with the directive.

“Turkish Air operated A330 to Abuja today as against the small B737 in apparent response to our suspension order, we needed not to get to this,” the minister said.

Turkish Air operated A330 to Abuja today as against the small B737 in apparent response to our suspension order, we needed not to get to this. Anyways……🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬 pic.twitter.com/7Uz8fT2Hcn

— Hadi Abubakar Sirika (@hadisirika) December 14, 2019
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On Thursday, Abdullahi Sidi, NCAA’s director-general, gave the ultimatum to the airline in a statement released by James Odaudu, director of public affairs at the ministry of aviation.

The NCAA DG said recent flights operated by the airline left behind the baggage of about 85% of the passengers on board.

“Our airport authority has been facing serious crises controlling the passengers at the airport whenever they arrive without their baggage. This issue has made passengers carry out several mob actions at our airport and it is a great threat to our airport facilities,” he said.

“In view of all these, and a series of meetings held with the Turkish Airlines personnel, which did not yield any solution to this problem, the NCAA is therefore left with no option than to direct Turkish Airlines to suspend its operations into Nigeria until such a time when the airline is ready to operate with the right size of aircraft that can transport all passengers with their baggage at the same time.”