Another Hike in Airfares Looms as NCAA Plans to Review Charges

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

There are strong indications that air passengers will soon have to pay more to fly from one location to another if they intend to use airlines operating in Nigeria.

This is because the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Mr Musa Nuhu, has hinted that the agency will soon review the fees paid by operators.

Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, he said the charges have remained the same since 2009 and would be reviewed very soon.

Mr Nuhu was reacting to a letter written by the Airline Operators of Nigeria to the Ministers of Finance and Aviation, alleging that the aviation agencies were stifling the growth of the sector through multiple charges.

But the NCAA chief refuted this, claiming that the airline operators are chronic debtors as they owe about N45.7 billion. He said they have 30 days to pay or have their licences revoked.

According to him, the domestic airline operators owe the NCAA about N22 billion, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) about N18 billion and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) about N5.7 billion.

He stressed that the indebtedness of the operators could wreck the three agencies as the NCAA, FAAN and NAMA do not receive funding support from the federal government as they survive from Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs) from the sector and then make remittances to the federation account.

Mr Nuhu explained that the Ticket Sales Charge and Cargo Sales Charge are statutory charges enshrined in the Civil Aviation Act 2006.

“The truth of the matter is that neither the five per cent TSC nor the five per cent CSC is charged or paid by the airlines. Section 12, Subsection 1 of the CAA 2006 is clear that these charges are to be collected from the passengers and on cargo by the airlines and paid to the authorities.

“These charges are not paid by the airlines as claimed by the AON. The airlines are only to collect these charges and pay over to the authority.

“The TSC and CSC are shared among aviation agencies, namely NAMA, NiMet, NCAT, AIB and NCAA at the pre-determined measure stated in the CAA,” he said.

“These funds are not only meant for the agencies, we pay 25 per cent of it to the consolidated revenue of the federation. So, it is not only the agencies’ money, but it is also the federal government’s money,” he further said.