The reason for an increased number of foreign registered private/corporate jets in Nigeria has been traced to lower insurance policy cover, convenience to secure services of crew members as well as a ploy to conceal real ownership, The Nation is reporting.
Nigeria in the last decade has seen an upsurge in the presence of luxury aircraft at its airports and at airports’ hangars across the country with private flying now the preferred mode of air travel among influential Nigerians.
However, investigations by the newspaper reveal that many influential Nigerians, who have acquired private/corporate jets in the last few years, have done so under foreign registration.
This preference for foreign registration of private/corporate jets it was learnt, will reduce the insurance cover significantly because Nigeria is considered as a high risk country.
Apart of lower insurance cover for aircraft with foreign registration, the owners of the aircraft in a bid not to trace the ownership of such luxury aircraft to them request charter companies to manage such aircraft for commercial utilisation, maintenance schedule consistency and other technical considerations.
An industry source also hinted that it is commercially convenient to dispose a private jet with foreign registration operating in Nigeria as opposed to an aircraft with Nigerian registration.
According to the source, the second hand value of a private jet with foreign registration is more valuable as opposed to a private jet with Nigerian registration.
The Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Captain Mukhtar Usman, said there are 146 corporate jets in the country, of which only 46 are registered in Nigeria while 100 has foreign registration.
Confirming the reasons behind an increase in foreign registered private jets, the NCAA spokesman, Sam Adurogboye, said the owners of such aircraft consider many factors.
He listed the factors to include lower insurance cover as well as how to optimise second hand value for such aircraft.
Adurogboye said: “There is nothing wrong with people giving foreign registration to their aircraft. All that is critical is that they subject the operations of their private jets in Nigeria to the prescribed rules and regulations rolled out for such category of operations by the regulator.
“At the NCAA, we have a list of such aircraft and the conditions of their registration. But, investigations reveal that people give foreign registration to their aircraft because they consider many factors such as country where there is lower insurance cover for taking their action.
“Some operators also do that because they want to conceal the identity of the aircraft owner; there is also the consideration for the second value for such aircraft. There are a lot of reasons”.
