Operators in the country’s aviation sector have decried the multiple charges by government agencies.
Spokesperson of the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Obiora Okonkwo, who made this known, called on the federal government to urgently wade into the matter to save domestic airline operators.
Okonkwo who is the founder of United Nigeria Airlines made the call at an event to mark the airline’s 4th anniversary.
While lamenting the charges, he, however, noted that the forex policies of President Bola Tinubu-led administration and the newly signed Cape Town Convention have helped in reducing the cost of operations in the country’s aviation industry.
“I think that the foreign exchange policy of the Tinubu administration has been of tremendous advantage to the airline industry. Before he came into power, it was a nightmare for us to be able to convert the naira to foreign currencies to pay our obligations. We lost a whole lot of contracts.
“We lost a lot of vendors. Because you have your money stuck in naira in the bank, and you don’t get the forex that you need. You can’t even go and help yourself somewhere. So, it’s a different story. You don’t need to track funds like l mentioned for the foreign operators, the government has cleared that, almost a billion US dollars.
“It has opened up a new window for better relationships. Our reputation and integrity in the international aviation industry are better now. So, we are happy with it,” Okonkwo stated.
He also noted that lately, unruly passengers are posing a challenge to the industry, a situation he said was often hinged on delayed and cancelled flights.
While pointing out that delays happen globally, he appealed to passengers to be calm and understand their rights and obligations as passengers.
The AON official urged the government to create a window for reduced rate loans for airline operators and also reduce multiple charges on operators.
“One thing that will help the growth of this industry will be for the government to develop a programme that will give the window access to local operators to a single-digit loan.
“They need to cut down on the charges the operators pay different agencies of government, in all they are about 20. The margin of this business is very low and if you have to meet all those charges to NCAA, NAMA, FAAN, you are left with nothing. It’s affecting us, we need to have more money to be able to develop, expand and then also improve the working environment for our staff.”
Okonkwo said it was imperative for the government to understand that access to credit is very important to operators because they are competing with people who have access to loans at 3, 5 per cent maximum, and aviation is a global village and they can’t compete with them with weighty interest rates.
