The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended all the wet-leased aircraft under the United Nigeria Airlines (UNA).
The suspension comes after an Abuja bound UNA’s aircraft landed passengers at the Asaba International Airport on Sunday instead of their destination – Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja.
Investogist gathered that the regulatory body took the decisive action after an emergency meeting at its headquarters in Abuja on Monday, as NCAA inspectors were not convinced about the claim of the airline that the diversion was as a result of bad weather.
The airline’s Head, Corporate Communications, Achilleus-Chud Uchegbu, made the bad weather claim in a statement after reports on social media claimed the airline’s pilot was given a wrong flight plan.
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One of the travellers on the aircraft with the name Peacock and tweeter handle @dawisu stated that “We departed Lagos about an hour ago on @flyunitedng to Abuja and upon arrival, the cabin crew confidently announced that we’ve arrived Abuja only for us to realise we landed in Asaba. Apparently, our pilot was given wrong flight plan from Lagos.”
It was learnt that all the wet-leased aircraft in UNA’s fleet would remain suspended until after the conclusion of the investigation into the incident.
The NCAA’s decision to suspend all the wet-leased aircraft in its fleet has been communicated to the airline via a letter on Monday.
A wet-leased is a leasing arrangement whereby one airline (the lessor) provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) to another airline or other type of business acting as a broker of air travel (the lessee), which pays by hours operated.