NCAA may clamp down on airlines for failing to meet ticket charges deadline

A fresh crisis seems to be brewing in the aviation industry as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said it would begin a clampdown on any ailing operator that fails to comply with the March 30 deadline for payment of 5 per cent ticket sales/cargo charges.

However, the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) had in a last minute appeal on Thursday requested the authorities to make yet another postponement of the policy, citing the economic realities for such request.

The idea of collecting the charges from the airlines was arrived at in 2001 at the conference that gave birth to the Civil Policy Review on Aviation Revenue Automation Project (ARAP).

The stakeholders agreed that it would be given 10 years to become fully implementable, though other factors were said to have played against its take off till 2015.

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Addressing some of the challenges of the operators, the Secretary General of AON, Mr. Clifford Adynnini, stated that its members had the intention to pay the charges, but that the economic recession, which has seen many airlines struggling to survive has made imperative the further deferring of the program.

“We are not saying we won’t pay, rather we are asking for government understanding of the crisis that most of our members are into by lobbying for further shifting of the deadline once more.

“What should be noted is that it was even the operators, who were promoting policy as it is one of the ways of ensuring the viability of NCAA, though the reality is that things are not yet So asking for a shift from the March deadline is not asking for too much,” he said.

At the various operators’ offices discussions were centred on the possibility of their aircraft being grounded as from Friday over the issue

But the spokesman of NCAA, Sam Adurogboye said there had been series of reminders notifying the operators over the past months in line with the agreement at the last meeting held with them over the matter.

It could be recalled that the Authority had shifted the January 31st 2017 ultimatum to March ending at the instance of the operators at their earlier meeting with the Director General, Capt. Muhtar Usman and his team at the Aviation House.

Government has projected raking in enough revenue from the ticket charges to run the sector, said a ministerial official.

 

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