We May Go After Dana Air Assets To Refund Passengers, Travel Agents, Keyamo Says

Aviation minister directs NCAA probe, may seize Dana Air assets to repay passengers and agents.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, on Tuesday disclosed the federal government may go after the assets of Dana Air to refund trapped funds of passengers and airline travel agents.

Meanwhile, Keyamo on Monday received in audience the Secretary General of the Airports Council International (ACI) Africa, Mr. Alli Tounsi, just as Nigeria is billed to host the prestigious ACI Africa’s Acrobatics Regional Conference and Exhibition next September, 2026.

The threat to go after the assets of Dana Air trails the minister’s position; he would direct the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to probe why funds trapped by the airline are yet to be refunded.

Keyamo, speaking on why the Authority suspended the operations of the airline, he revealed the suspension was a choice between safety and disaster.

The minister disclosed this in Abuja at the ministry’s fourth-quarter stakeholders’ engagement to enhance governance for effective service delivery in aviation, themed “leveraging public feedback to drive excellence in aviation services.”

On actions to be taken to recover the trapped funds, Keyamo noted, “For Dana, the problem is that it was a choice between safety and disaster. So, we didn’t take the commercial thing as a priority. The priority was safety and we all looked at the damning reports that we met on the table.

“It was a decision of the NCAA to suspend them, but I pushed them to say, ‘Look, these are the reports we are seeing on the table about safety records and about lack of standards that puts the lives of Nigerians at risk.