ZAINAB JUNAID
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended the Air Transport Licence (ATL) of Azman Air for its failure to submit its security clearance for renewal, which has expired since April 2021 and is one of the requirements for the renewal of ATL.
Director General of the authority, Captain Musa Nuhu disclosed this to journalists on Thursday adding that the airline which commenced scheduled operations in 2014 has also failed to remit N1. 2 billion funds collected from air travelers on its behalf to its coffers. Captain Nuhu explained that the N1.2 billion debt was the revenue accrued from the five percent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC) collected from the air travelers by the airline.
According to him, “The TSC/CSC is shared among five aviation agencies; NCAA, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria. “NCAA gets 58 per of the total five percent of TSC/CSC and it is the major revenue earning for the agency, while the other four agencies share the remaining 42 percent.
“The regulatory agency had made efforts to recover the debt from the airline over the years, but the carrier was recalcitrant in paying back the sum despite collecting it from the passengers, he said. .
The NCAA chief explained further that before this sanctioning, several meetings have been held by the Authority with the Airline’s management but all were inconclusive as the airline maintained that it can only be remitting #10 million monthly but the regulatory body insisted on #50 million monthly from the airline.
His words, “We didn’t suspend Azman Air’s AOC, but suspended their ATL, which had earlier expired. The ATL earlier expired in April 2021, but we gave the airline extension because of the disruption to aviation activities by the Cocid-19 pandemic, just as we did for other airlines, too. However, we wrote a reminder letter to the airline six months before the new expiring date, which is statutory. “Later, the airline requested for another extension of 90 days, but we only granted it 60 days and at the expiration of the 60 days, we also gave it 30 days reminder, which elapsed on Wednesday night, yet nothing was done by the airline.
“Besides, the airline owed us N1.2 billion as TSC/CSC. We invited them and set up a committee for that purpose. Azman said they would pay the sum of N10 million monthly out of the debt, which we refused. They later came up to N20 million, but we insist on N50 million monthly. If we had agreed to the N10 million monthly, it means it will take them about 12 years to repay back the money it had already collected, and by then, the money would have lost.”
Captain Nuhu however, maintained that the ATL or AOC of any other airline that owed the agency five percent TSC/CSC would not be renewed henceforth and appealed to other carriers to pay up the backlog of debts.
