“It is a great achievement”, IATA commends United Nigeria Airlines on getting IOSA certification

The United Nigeria Airlines has successfully completed the Operational Safety Audit conducted by the International Air Transport Association.

Dr. Samson Fatokun, the IATA Manager for West and Central Africa, praised the airline for successfully completing the demanding audit processes that have brought them up to par with international airlines in terms of safety standards at the presentation of the IOSA certificate to the airline on Thursday in Lagos.

He emphasised that the airline must make sure it maintains the certification, pointing out that some previous holders of the accreditation were unable to do so.

Dr Fatokun said, “In two plus years of your operations, you are already there and at this level, it can be said, you adhered to the global safety standards at its best and that is a great achievement and we will like to congratulate you for achieving this and we would congratulate the team that worked, this is good and you should be proud of yourself.

“It is a great achievement but maintaining yourself there is even tougher and more demanding. We have had airlines go up and getting there and not be able to retain themselves there and you are blessed with a group of very experienced colleagues and we couldn’t have expected anything more than this and you have done very well. IOSA is an end and also a means in itself that you can use to go to a higher level and the IATA membership is much more.”

Nigeria, according to Dr. Fatokun, has the largest number of airlines in the IOSA registry in the whole of West Africa and United Nigeria Airlines joining is evidence of their commitment to safety standards.

“We have very few airlines in West and Central Africa region that is on the IOSA Registry at the moment and you are one of those few for an airline that is just coming less than two years of operation that is already there, that is very good and we hope you will be able to sustain that and that same determination will continue so that, you can keep up being there.

“In Nigeria, we have six airlines that are in the IOSA registry, it is by far the only country in Africa with this large number of IOSA member airlines, six in a single country, there is no country in Africa can that can boost of that not even South Africa, we just want to congratulate the Nigeria operators,” Fatokun said.

Maxi Okonkwo, Chief Operating Officer of United Nigeria Airlines, had earlier stated that the company was thrilled to have accomplished one of its goals to be recognised internationally, particularly in terms of safety.

He said, “When we started operations from day one, we made this part of our programme and our chairman then say that anything we need to do to be internationally recognized to be on IATA register we should do it within two years of our operations and I can tell you that we have achieved that exactly before two years of our starting operations.

“It involved visiting our ATO, the institution that trains our pilots, the audit team had to go there make sure that what we have written down is what is exactly happening. It was a very serious process, it opened our eyes to many things”.

“So it was a privilege, an honour and responsibility all put together that we managed to go through that and became successful. We also thank IATA and the audit team”.

“I must emphasize that it wouldn’t have been easy without the great work members of team United Nigeria did on this and the support of all stakeholders, the regulators, the ground services providers, etc.”