By Chukwudi Samuel
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had accused the Nigerian local airlines of deliberate attempts to cripple it’s operation by refusing to pay for services rendered to them.
The NCAA said the local airlines are owing over N19 billion and $7.6 million on tickets charge’s they have collected from passengers but refused to remit to the authority. The NCAA said the situation is inevitabling it’s finances and pitching the authority against the Federal Government as government owned revenue generating agency, following the dire financial position of the Federal Government.
The NCAA Director General, Capt. Musa Nuhu stated this in Abuja at a stakeholders meeting with all the airlines and the aviation agencies.
He said rather than the airlines thinking creatively to grow their businesses and industry, they have targeted the NCAA with campaigns of calumny and faleshoods. The airlines operators of Nigeria (AON), an umbrella body for all the airlines operating in Nigeria had accused the NCAA of multiple charges. However the AON had also on a letter written to the minister of finance, budget and planning. Mrs Zainab Ahmed said the charges occasioned with the forex crises and jet A1(aviation fuel) is choking the airlines to death.
Irked by the tone of the complaint, the NCAA DG said the accusation by the airlines are unfair, unfounded and smacked of blackmail. He said all airlines are indebted to the NCAA, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigeria airspace management agency (NAMA). Capt. Nuhu also explained that the NCAA charges the airlines just cost recovery charges as the bulk of it’s revenue comes from the statutory charges on air ticket bone by customer’s adding that the airlines deducts the funds add to their revenue rather than remitting same to the aviation agencies.
He also said thier accusation are farther from the truth as comperative analysis of charges between Nigeria and Ghana shows that Ghana charges over 100 percent higher in most of the charges. He thus said the NCAA will also review it’s charges higher ad the authority hasn’t reviewed charges for about 13 years in spite rising cost of service provision.
NCAA DG, Capt Nuhu, went further saying the airlines must in the next thirty days commit to a payment plan or be suspended. “The airlines must enter an MoU o how they will pay their debts in the next thirty days starting from August thirty 2022 or thier license will be suspended at the expiration of the deadline’
He said, the aviation agencies are just as challenged as they also rely on forex to train and procure critical equipment the airlines needs to operate safely. “The Nigeria airspace management agency (NAMA) is also being owned over N5 billion and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is also being owned over N19 billion by same NIGERIAN registered airlines”
Responding to the NCAA, the chief executive officer, Kashim Bukar Shettima said the NCAA is also not perfect thus the issue can be solved amicably. He said the DG could have engaged the AON privately to resolve the issue because if the AON also begin to speak, it will amount to “washing their dirty linen in the public” yes, airlines owe money but the airlines are also deeply challenged because they can’t get fuel or access dollars freely, adding that they buy dollars in the black market, ” we might come together to resolve our problems.
