Following the crash of its plane in Iju-Ishaga, a Lagos suburb, on June 3, 2012, aviation authorities had temporarily grounded the airline. However, the airline will conduct its inaugural flight from Lagos to Abuja at about 9.45am today.
The airline’s spokesman, Tony Usidamen, who confirmed this yesterday told Vanguard that all arrangements had been concluded for a seamless flight. The airline yesterday had a pre-inaugural flight from Lagos to Abuja, but he added that the flight had no commercial passengers on board, except some officials of the airline. According to him, full commercial operations will begin today with the first commercial flight taking off at 9.45 am from Lagos to Abuja.
He also confirmed that the airline’s reservation system had been abuzz with intending passengers making their bookings, saying that explained the reason the flight would be real-time.
According to ThisDay, the inaugural flight would have on board government officials from regulatory agencies such as the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and entertainers such as Basket Mouth, Denrele, Karen Igho of Big Brother Africa fame, Durela, Buchi and Bovi.
The Federal Government through the NCAA revoked the company’s operating licence shortly after the crash pending proper investigations. In September 2012, the Federal Government reinstated the airline’s licence and allowed it to resume, only with test flights. And then in December 2012, NCAA issued a new Air Operators Certificate to Dana Air after it completed the necessary re-certification processes.
With the resumption of flights, Dana Air would become the second Nigerian airline involved in a crash in the last 10 years that was allowed to fly. The first was Bellview Airlines.
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