Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has denied the allegation that its members defrauded 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 N19 billion while converting same to personal use.
In a statement signed by AON Vice President and Chairman of AirPeace, Allen Onyema, he maintained that airlines did not defraud aviation agencies.
“AON wishes to state its very strong reservations for such accusations and we deny very strongly that our members are defrauding or defrauded government agencies of the said amount or any amount for that matter. Airline Operations, worldwide, is 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,” the statement said.
Onyema however noted that it is true that some of its members have very bad debts but not all members owe such debts, adding that 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,” he said.
According to him, various parties were present at a stakeholders’ meeting and the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Musa Nuhu, did not at any time use such words to describe Nigerian airlines.
He stated that the meeting rather 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. We, however, advise our members with such bad debts to engage the agencies and put forward repayment plans.
Airlines in Nigeria are operating under very harsh environment and need all the support from everyone,” the vice president explained.
In a stakeholders’ meeting on Tuesday, Nuhu, had warned that if over N42bn and $7.8 million debt owed by airlines to agencies were not paid immediately, the aviation organisations might collapse in the next few weeks.
He said domestic airlines currently owed the NCAA N19 billion and $7.8 million respectively for their statutory five percent Ticket Sales Charge and Cargo Sales Charge (TSC/CSC).
