Domestic airlines operating flights into Kano, Maiduguri, Yola and
other volatile cities the North are currently carrying out safety and security
audits of their operations to determine whether they should continue flying to
the cities or not.
The development came a few months after some of the domestic
carriers cancelled night-stops for their crew and aircraft in extremely
volatile northern cities, especially Maiduguri.
Currently, airlines that fly into the key northern cities are IRS,
Aerocontractors, Arik, Chanchangi and Medview.
The Director of Flight Operations of one of the airlines flying
into the northern cities said the carrier had on Tuesday dispatched two
separate teams of officials from its safety and security departments to Kano
and other cities in the North to ascertain if the airline would need to
continue its flight operations into the volatile cities or not.
According to the official, domestic airlines had a year ago
carried out similar security and safety audits in the height of attacks from
the deadly Islamic sect, Boko Haram.
Sources familiar with the situation said virtually all the
concerned airlines were already re-examining their operations into the volatile
northern cities.
The sources said the airlines believed they needed to review their
operations into the cities as the suicide bomb blasts at an inter-state
commercial bus park in Sabon-Gari area of Kano showed that air transport could
also be a target of the deadly Islamic group.
The blasts, which also injured scores of passengers, drivers,
hawkers and visitors, destroyed five luxury passenger buses.
A Marcopolo bus belonging to Gobison Motors had on board over 70
passengers when it was attacked by the suicide bombers just as it was about
departing the busy park for Lagos, it was learnt.
Aviation security consultant and former Military Commandant of the
Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Group Captain John Ojikutu,
(retd), said the domestic airlines were reacting rather late to the potential
threat posed by the activities of Boko Haram to the aviation sector.
He said airlines should have carried out such security and safety
review and audit of their operations to the North long before the latest deadly
bombing in Kano.
Ojikutu said, “The airlines are starting too late. Aviation and
airliners are targets of terrorists. I mentioned it a year ago. All the
domestic airlines need to review their security programmes to see if they can
sustain the present threat. I have seen that the security programme they have
cannot sustain the threat.
“Airlines need to establish a list of their frequently travelled
passengers so that it will make it easy for them to sort out non-frequently
travelled passengers. The airlines need to come with a Computer Assisted
Pre-Passenger Screening that will help them identify passengers who they need
to carry out enhanced screening on.
“Also, government needs to come up with a list of people that are
threats to civil aviation. Government can then circulate the list internally
through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority to the airlines.”
However, a top official of one of the airlines flying to the North
told our correspondent on Thursday that the carrier would continue flying to
the region as preliminary findings from the safety and security audits of its
operations in volatile northern cities, especially Kano, revealed that certain
security measures that could prevent attacks from the Boko Haram sect and other
insurgent groups were in place.
“Along the road leading to the Kano airport, there are several security checks at the moment. And within the Kano airport, certain security checks have been put in place by the government,” he said.
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