The indebtedness of domestic airlines to Aviation agencies in Nigeria has been described as one which could run the agencies out of business, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) has lamented.
NCAA said the debts which have risen to over N19 billion and $7.8 million were accummulated from the statutory 5 per cent Ticket Sales Charge and Cargo Sales Charge (TSC/CSC).
The airlines, it was gathered are also indebted to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) to the tune of N18 billion and N5 billion, respectively.
The airlines owed FAAN landing and parking charges, while they are also hugely indebted to NAMA in terminal and navigational charges.
The Director-General, NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu at a stakeholder meeting held with indigenous airlines and ground handling companies in Abuja on Tuesday, warned that if the debts owed the agencies were not paid immediately in the next few weeks, the aviation organisations may collapse very soon.
Nuhu also gave the operators one month ultimatum to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NCAA, which would stipulate the repayment plans of their debts to the agency.
The Chief regulator expressed disappointment over a letter, which emanated from the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), signed by Alhaji Abdulmunaf Yunusa, the President of AON, dated August 8, 2022 and addressed to Sen. Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation that accused the agencies, especially the NCAA of muscling out the operators through multiple charges.
Nuhu who noted that the airlines and the entre aviation industry were going through a very difficult period, especially at this time, insisted that all the charges collected by NCAA were statutorily and in compliance with the Civil Aviation Act 2006.
According to him, the airlines were not responsible for the payment of TSC/CSC, but only collect such on behalf of the agencies from the passengers and wondered why the operators would accuse it of engaging in multiple levies.
Nuhu further debunked the claim that the NCAA imposes excess baggage charge on the airlines.
He further compared and juxtaposed the levies imposed on operators in Nigeria and Ghana, and reeled out the huge differences.
The NCAA helmsman explained that for any of the charges to be repealed, it would have to go through the National Assembly and must be assented to by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He also decried that out of the 5 per cent TSC/CSC, the agencies still remit 25 per cent of their revenues to the Consolidated Revenue Account created by the Federal Government and advised the operators to always crosscheck their facts before going to the public.
He added: “NCAA relies 100 per cent on its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). The 5 per cent TSC paid by passengers is 85 per cent of NCAA revenue, while the other 15 per cent comes from airlines as payment for services provided and they are all cost recovery. We don’t also impose any excess baggage charge on the airlines. I wonder where the operators saw this.
“The airlines have intentionally refused to pay the debts owed us despite the fact that they have collected such from the passengers. The airlines collect money and refuse to transmute such to the right authorities. AON wants us to provide services for free for them. What the airlines are trying to do is to defunct NCAA. You have refused to give us our legitimate money. The fees we are charging the airlines are just cost recovery and we are actually subsidising the airlines.”
Also, Engr. Mathew Pwajok, the Acting Managing Director of NAMA, reiterated that the charges of the agency were minimal when compared to other countries around the world.
He, however, disclosed that the airlines owed them over N5 billion for services rendered to them over the years.
Also, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu of FAAN, also disclosed that the airlines owe the agency N18 billion and debunked the claim that it charges the airlines indiscriminately as claimed in its letter.
He declared that FAAN was not imposing any new burden on the airlines, stressing that the its landing and parking charges for international operators were last reviewed in 1998, while for the local airlines, it was reviewed last in 2002.
He said that there was the need for the charges to be reviewed by the agency, stressing that within the period, the airlines had reviewed their air tickets on numerous occasions.
Responding, Alhaji Kashim Bukar, the Managing Director, Skyjet Airline, wondered why the DG NCAA brought the issue to the public glare.
He said that rather than make it a public issue, NCAA should have called the operators into a closed door meeting to discuss the issue.
Also, Capt. Edward Boyo, the Managing Director, Overland Airways and a trustee of AON, apologized to the NCAA for the letter.
“I’m a trustee member of AON. On behalf of AON, I hope to apologise to you on the letter. The letter wasn’t intended to have this effect. Some parts of the letter were inappropriate. We apologise and I want to crave your indulgence to drop the issue,” he said.
Besides, Mr. Allen Onyema, the Vice President, AON, said he was seeing the letter for the first time and expressed disappointment with some of the contents in it.
He regretted that there are factions in AON, which had prevented them from speaking in one voice.
Onyema agreed that he was at the meeting with the Ministry of Finance and Aviation where the issue of skyrocketing price of Jet A1 was discussed, but insisted that no one maligned the image of NCAA or any aviation agencies at the meeting.
Nuhu don’t compound an already bad situation, this is not the time to squeeze airlines to pay debts when most airlines can’t brake even as a result of high operations cost incident on sky rocketing cost of aviation fuel and aqute scarcity of forex in the country for purchase of spares and payment of maintenance fees. It is instructive to note that most airlines currently can’t pay their staff during this null profit period while some resorted to paying half salaries to their staff just to keep body and soul together. Debts can only be paid when situations improve and bussinesses start becoming profitable. Therefore, the FGN should consider providing debt relieves to airlines operators through extending debt payment times, debt write offs and subsidies. The precarious financial situation of airline operators in Nigeria occasioned by local and global phenomena demand FGN intervention into the sector rather than further exerting and over stretching the little remaining energies on them.