Embattled domestic operator, Dana
Air, will commence its scheduled domestic operations today with a Lagos-Abuja
service.
The spokesman of Dana Group, Tony
Usidamen, thanked the NCAA for its support, adding that the airline would begin
with a Lagos-Abuja-Lagos flight today, after which it would gradually introduce
other routes it hitherto flew to.
It could be recalled that the
airline went off the skies on June 3, 2012, when the aviation ministry via the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) suspended its Air Operator’s
Certificate (AOC) following the crash of one of its MD 83 jets in Iju Ishaga
area of Lagos that killed 163 people and destroyed property worth billions of
naira.
Since then, the airline had
battled for its return into operation and on December 5, 2012, the NCAA issued
new AOC to the airline after it satisfactorily scaled the safety audit.
But the regulatory agency, NCAA,
told the airline management in clear terms that it would not be allowed to fly
until it begins to pay the outstanding 70 per cent of the $100,000 to families
of victims of the crash as stipulated by law.
Having also showed sufficient
evidence of this, the NCAA gave the airline the all clear nod to commence
scheduled operations.
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