Green Africa delays Entry-Into-Service to August 2021; suspends future booking for flights

Green Africa Airlines has announced that its flight operations will be delayed until July 2021 contrary to their expectations when they began to sell tickets on May 25th ahead of flights scheduled for June 24th (next week).

The airline has also suspended further bookings on its website and will be contacting customers who made bookings when the site reopens.

In a joint meeting between top officials of the regulatory body and Green Africa executives, it was determined that the airline’s Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) would not be available until July 2021 due to unforeseen circumstances.

The Founder and CEO of Green Africa, Babawande Afolabi, said, “This is certainly a bump in the road, and we are sensitive to the impact on our customers and other stakeholders.” In spite of this, we are confident in the NCAA’s support and commitment to get Green Africa into service, and we have also taken steps to compensate our affected customers.

In order to prevent future occurrences, Green Africa has temporarily suspended new bookings. Customers who booked previously will be contacted.

All customers who have booked flights with the airline website will be able to move their flights to future dates starting August 2021 at no extra charge.

Source: https://tourtelegraph.com/aviation/green-africa-delays-entry-into-service-to-august-2021-suspends-future-booking-for-flights/

Cc lalasticlala

O no
This is not gonna be funny. In this economy, with hopes raised so high and travel plans already in place,
What if there isn't any program that would warrant a traveler to book in August?

Thats how I lost one arik flight from kano to lagos one certain period like that. No refund, no flight. Arik stopped flying to kano.

God help Green Africa. All d best to them

Vision4God:
O no
This is not gonna be funny. In this economy, with hopes raised so high and travel plans already in place,
What if there isn't any program that would warrant a traveler to book in August?

Thats how I lost one arik flight from kano to lagos one certain period like that. No refund, no flight. Arik stopped flying to kano.

God help Green Africa. All d best to them

I commented on this airline's promises about a month or two ago and some contributors bashed my comments from a tribal prism. I pay less attention to media hype thus I still prefer arik & air peace despite their shortcomings. First they lied to the public that they had ordered 50 A220s in 2019 . I logged into the airbus order book and saw nothing like that. Somebody was quoting media release from newspapers. Then they went to lease 3 ATR72-600 from south africa and started selling seats for as low as NGN16,500 without a valid Air Operator Certificate (AOC). There first flight is supposed to be in 5 days but they are still yet to secure an AOC.

If you follow the NCAA guideline you'll find that an AOC is one of the toughest certificates to get. NCAA doesn't care about what is at stake to airline/customers. All they care about is meeting the stringent requirements. Discovery air went as far as buying three aircrafts in 2013/2014 but was not able to secure an AOC for a long time. When it eventually did it was already bankrupt and collapsed shortly after.

Airpeace in 2013/2014 bought and parked down 7 aircrafts for up to one year struggling to secure an AOC while spending money on staff, aircraft maintenance and many charges. To even give you an insight they recently purchased a set of new aircrafts (one delivered in January 2021, another in march and another yesterday). They have not yet received NCAA approval to deploy these planes into service . They have flown these planes empty across multiple cities burning fuel with no revenue to demonstrate to NCAA that they are capable. On the engineering side NCAA is also grilling them while they are burning cash. Adding big names in US aviation to your board room and selling tickets for NGN16,000 is far from the realities of aviation in Nigeria. Richard branson of virgin atlantic failed in Nigeria despite all the concessions FG granted him. The Nigerian aviation sector is over-regulated and soon the financiers of green africa will be frustrated out of the market. You need more than money and knowledge to survive in that sector.

abnot:

I commented on this airline's promises about a month or two ago and some contributors bashed my comments from a tribal prism. I pay less attention to media hype thus I still prefer arik & air peace despite their shortcomings. First they lied to the public that they had ordered 50 A220s in 2019 . I logged into the airbus order book and saw nothing like that. Somebody was quoting media release from newspapers. Then they went to lease 3 ATR72-600 from south africa and started selling seats for as low as NGN16,500 without a valid Air Operator Certificate (AOC). There first flight is supposed to be in 5 days but they are still yet to secure an AOC.

If you follow the NCAA guideline you'll find that an AOC is one of the toughest certificates to get. NCAA doesn't care about what is at stake to airline/customers. All they care about is meeting the stringent requirements. Discovery air went as far as buying three aircrafts in 2013/2014 but was not able to secure an AOC for a long time. When it eventually did it was already bankrupt and collapsed shortly after.

Airpeace in 2013/2014 bought and parked down 7 aircrafts for up to one year struggling to secure an AOC while spending money on staff, aircraft maintenance and many charges. To even give you an insight they recently purchased a set of new aircrafts (one delivered in January 2021, another in march and another yesterday). They have not yet received NCAA approval to deploy these planes into service . They have flown these planes empty across multiple cities burning fuel with no revenue to demonstrate to NCAA that they are capable. On the engineering side NCAA is also grilling them while they are burning cash. Adding big names in US aviation to your board room and selling tickets for NGN16,000 is far from the realities of aviation in Nigeria. Richard branson of virgin atlantic failed in Nigeria despite all the concessions FG granted him. The Nigerian aviation sector is over-regulated and soon the financiers of green africa will be frustrated out of the market. You need more than money and knowledge to survive in that sector.

Well said.
@ bolded above, how is it over - regulated?
Seems u work or have someone close in d aviation sector.


BTW may God help them.
A lesson I picked, ensure you are properly prepared for a task/project b4 announcement /engaging the public.

Vision4God:


Well said.
@ bolded above, how is it over - regulated?
Seems u work or have someone close in d aviation sector.


BTW may God help them.
A lesson I picked, ensure you are properly prepared for a task/project b4 announcement /engaging the public.

Between 2003 and 2006 Nigeria witnessed a number of plane crashes which led the then president to engage Dr. Harold Demuren as DG of NCAA. When he came on board he introduced massive reforms in the sector to improve safety and leave no stone untouched. He also turned NCAA into a kind of training/knowledge centre with its employees being trained and re-trained all the time. The NCAA act was also amended in 2006 to legitimise these reforms thus making it difficult for successive DGs to change. This resulted in an over-regulated aviation sector that made it very difficult to even secure an AOC to start an airline business. Then Nigeria had many one-aircraft airline but that changed . These reforms made the skies safer but also made
It difficult to penetrate and survive in the industry as cutting corners come at a huge cost. That is one side to it.
Another side to it is that FAAN generates most of its revenue from Lagos and Abuja airports. When they get this cash they use it to cater for 22 other airports across the country thus all the airports end up being underfunded with no money for expansion, replacement of equipments and procurement of enough equipments to Match the traffic. With this in mind it becomes very difficult to avoid flight delays as an operator if you’re maximising your aircraft usage. For instance when it rains in yola planes are unable to land because the airport has no navigational equipment as a result the flight is delayed till the weather clears. With the same aircraft booked for 5 more trips on that day all 5 flights will be delayed.
Then you also have this belief that aviation is elitist with the airlines being charged by multiple aviation agencies and service providers . When you buy a ticket look at the tax and charge component that makes up the total fare . Makes it difficult to operate profitably at even 20k per trip. You also have the dollar scarcity problem, insurance problems , issues with lessor and many others. All these factors have made it difficult to operate an airline in Nigeria. The few that are in operation are struggling.

Vision4God:


Well said.
@ bolded above, how is it over - regulated?
Seems u work or have someone close in d aviation sector.


BTW may God help them.
A lesson I picked, ensure you are properly prepared for a task/project b4 announcement /engaging the public.

Exactly