THE Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has approved the Certificate of Airworthiness (C- of- A) of one of the aircraft of Air Mid-West. The airline plans to use this to launch itself into commercial passenger operations.

The C- of- A No 1333, it was learnt, was approved for the airline’s Boeing 737-500 carrying registration number 5N-PVA which was brought into Lagos from the British Airways hangar in London, where it was painted in the airline’s colours on November 26,2009.

When contacted, the Managing director of Air Mid-West, Otunba Victor Aigbokhan, said securing the C-of- A has now paved the way for the airline to start operations and that efforts were on to bring the remaining two aircraft into the country to, not only serve as back-up, but also to shore up its domestic network.

Aigbokhan said the airline planned to carry out a demonstration flight of the aircraft last Friday as part of safety requirements prior to going into full operations, adding that the aircraft is configured in All Business Class while the other two are in two-class configuration of First Class and Economy.

In order to give its passengers one of the best in-flight services, Aigbokhan disclosed that the airline went into arrangement with one of the most popular eateries for the supply of snacks.

According to him, the airline would be operating from the Domestic Terminal 1 from Lagos to Benin, Owerri, Abuja and Port Harcourt airports daily in the first phase of its planned route network.

The airline, which has as its slogan: ’Safety, Our Priority’ has a compliment of three sets of flight crew with a mixture of highly qualified Nigerian and foreign engineers to ensure prompt maintenance of its fleet and also strict adherence to safety rules and regulations as laid down by the NCAA.

The airline chief executive assured: “We will totally comply with NCAA regulations. There is no cutting corners. That is why it took several weeks since the plane was brought in on November 26, 2009 for us to secure the C-of- A. We took time to ensure that we meet all requirement.

“We thank God that finally, we are here. I have to commend the NCAA for their thoroughness. The standard already set by the Director General, Dr Harold Demuren and his team on safety will be very difficult for anybody in future to change when the country finnally attain Category 1 Status.”