Nigeria has lost the United States Category One status as the country’s airlines failed to operate directly to the country for two years.
The new United States Federal Aviation Administration (USFAA) law says that the failure of any country’s airlines to operate directly to the US for two years or vice-versa would lead to the loss of the Category-One (CAT-1) Status.
With this removal, Nigerian airlines, including those planning to commence direct flights from Lagos, cannot operate directly to any city or airport in the US until the country is re-audited and re-certificated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and returned to its former status.
Nigeria gained the USFAA CAT-1 Status in August 2010 after a rigorous exercise that spanned about five years, but due to the combined factors of drop in standards and the failure of some Nigerian airlines to operate directly to the US for seven years, some stakeholders said the country lost the rating.
Industry analyst and Director of research at Zenith Travels, Olumide Ohunayo, told newsmen, “With the situation, the chances for Nigeria airlines to operate direct flights to the United States may be slim. It may not be as bright as it was about three years ago, but there is no gloom as it is not downgrading. Downgrading only comes after the audit and that is what we need. We need to call the FAA back for a re-audit”.
Ohunayo said now that Nigerian carriers are showing interest in flying into the US, the country’s aviation regulators would have to do the re-audit with the international body.
There are 83 countries either in Category One or Two in the updated list of USFAA. Egypt, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Morocco, and South Africa are African countries on the FAA Category One list. The countries on the Category One list are said to meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.
The only five countries on Category Two are: Venezuela, Thailand, Russia, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Bangladesh.
