Air Safety: AON Urges FG to Review Salaries of NCAA’s Technical Staff
The Federal Government has been called upon to review upward the packages and salaries of the staff of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), especially its technical personnel.
A statement by Mr Stanley Olisa on Wednesday stated that Mr Allen Onyema, the Vice President of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), stated this at the 2021 Brazil-Nigeria Aviation and Defence Trade Forum 2021, organised by the Embassy of Brazil in Abuja.
The statement noted that with the current take-home packages for the technical staff of the regulatory agency, it was not able to attract and retain quality manpower.
Onyema who is also the Chairman, Air Peace Airlines stated that the review was necessary for the agency and the industry at large; adding that it needed experienced and qualified personnel to continue to discharge its oversight responsibilities creditably.
The Chairman, Air Peace Airlines lamented that NCAA was not able to poach top talents in the industry because its salary structure leaves much to be desired and canvassed for the removal of NCAA from the civil service salary structure.
According to him, some of the personnel working in the agency were due for retirement and were already worn out, but were still in the service because the regulatory agency could not afford to hire quality staff to replace them.
“Their salaries should be upwardly reviewed to match the airlines’ salary structure, as nobody wants to go there to work, but they (current staff) are doing their best, which is very commendable. This is a patriotic call,” he emphasized.
It was gathered that NCAA, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) were facing a dearth of professionals, which is currently affecting their performances.
NCAA, which is the regulatory agency of the aviation industry, is expected to have highly skilled manpower in sufficient number, but its number of inspectors had dropped in recent times.
It was also gathered that while some of the professionals like pilots, engineers, air traffic controllers, air traffic communicators, aeronautical information managers, cabin crews, and others have resigned from their duty posts to seek employment in private organisations in the sector, especially the airlines because of poor remuneration, others retired from the system while getting a replacement for them had been a herculean task.
The drop in the number of skilled personnel was attributed to poor take home packages for the professionals, while some of its skilled manpower had taken up jobs in some of the airlines; others seek greener pastures outside the country.