Nigeria’s aviation authorities on Monday lifted the temporary suspension which they slammed on Dana Air over safety concerns on Saturday.
An Aviation Ministry statement said the decision to lift the suspension was taken after a meeting between the management of the airline and aviation regulatory body.
“Officials of the Federal Ministry of Aviation and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) met with the Management team from Dana Airlines today (Monday) in Abuja and deliberated on some safety issues in connection with the operations of the airline.
“At the end of the meeting, the suspension of the operations of the airline which took effect last Saturday was lifted. The airline is to resume normal operations immediately.
“However, the particular aircraft which had a snag over the weekend is to remain grounded until after its air-worthiness has been re-certified by Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the airline has announced that scheduled flights would resume on Tuesday.
”We are pleased to announce that the airline has been given approval to resume operations with immediate effect, following the temporary suspension of our operations on Saturday,” the airline said in a statement on its website on Monday evening.
“Scheduled flights will now commence on Tuesday, 19th March, 2013, on the Lagos-Abuja-Lagos route,” it said.
It was the second time in a year that the operating licence of the airline has been suspended.
The airline was grounded for several months last year, as its operating licence was suspended after one of its planes crashed on the outskirts of the economic capital city of Lagos, killing at least 159.
Dana Air’s licence was, however, restored last September, after the government said it was satisfied with the air-worthiness of the airline, paving the way for it to resume operations in January 2013.
