N36bn debts: We have not defrauded FG ― Airlines Operators of Nigeria

Nigerian airlines under the aegis of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have responded to the allegations of owing the various aviation agencies in Nigeria to the tune of over 36 billion saying most of the so-called indebted carriers were no longer in existence.

In a statement issued and signed by the Vice President of the AON, Mr Allen Onyema and made available to the media, the operators took exception to the allegations levelled against them by the Chief Executives of the agencies led by the director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu which accused them of defrauding the agencies.

The AON statement partly read: “Our attention has been drawn to news making the rounds that the DG NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, “accused airlines of defrauding government aviation agencies like the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) of over N19billion Naira while converting same to ‘personal use”.

“The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) wishes to state its very strong reservations for such accusations and we deny very strongly that our members are defrauding or defrauding government agencies of the said amount or any amount for that matter. Airline Operations, worldwide, are not a cash-and-carry business. Every airline in the world owes debts which are settled as their operations go on. Nigeria is not an exception.

“Some of our members indeed have very bad debts but not all our members owe such debts. The owing of debts in itself does not amount to fraud. We frown very strongly at the criminalization of all Nigerian airlines as a result of the said debts.

“Various parties were present at a stakeholders’ meeting and the DG NCAA did not at any time use such words to describe Nigerian airlines. Rather, the meeting ended on an amicable note with everyone agreeing to work together to address the debts. It is pertinent to point out that some of these debts are owed by some airlines that are no longer in existence.”

The leadership of the AON however, urged its members with such bad debts to engage the agencies and put forward repayment plans even as the operators lamented how all airlines in Nigeria were presently operating in a very harsh environment and need all the support from everyone.

The agencies through the DG NCAA at a stakeholder meeting in Abuja on Tuesday declared that the operators were indebted to the agencies to the tune of over N36 billion.

According to the breakdown given by the agencies, the operators were said to be indebted to the NCAA to the tune of N19 billion through the statutory 5 per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC) which had accumulated to over N19 billion and $7.8 million in the last few years.

For the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), while the airlines owed N18 billion being accumulated incurred from the landing and parking charges of their aircraft, the airlines equally owed the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) N5 billion
through the terminal and navigational charges of the services rendered by the airlines.

The agencies had cautioned that failure of the airlines to commence servicing the accumulated debts may lead to the total collapse of the agencies.

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N36b debts: We have not defrauded FG-AON

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