NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*Nigeria: Arik Air Makes A Detour - Pays N50m & $25,000

By Lateef Lawal

Arik Air which was refused start-up September 1 for its flights by Air Traffic Controllers over its huge debt has made a U-Turn by paying N50 million for its domestic operations and $25,000 for six flights on the Lagos-London route.

It could not be immediately known why the sudden change of heart, when the management of the airline had earlier told journalists that it was not going to pay since "the dispute in respect of the domestic charges has been on since 2002 and is currently before the Supreme Court".

Arik management further claimed that at a meeting held August 30, at the conference room of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA) attended by Aero, Air Nigeria, Dana, Bristow and IRS airlines, it was agreed that navigational charges were illegal. It also described the action of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency(NAMA) as unlawful and unilateral. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: A landing Arik Plane

Despite the claim by Arik, all the airlines mentioned including Associated Airline, Overland, Allied Air, Mobil Aviation and AOS Helicopters not only paid part of their old debts but also embraced the new payment regime of ‘Pay As You Go’ for all their flights to avoid future accumulation of debts.

However, in a swift response to Arik’s claims, NAMA in a statement stated among others:

That all the domestic airline operators were fully notified earlier before now shortly after a meeting in Abuja with the honourable minister of aviation, Mrs Fidelia Akuabata Njeze who equally appealed to them to honour their financial obligations to all the parastatals. That the issue of Terminal Navigation Charge has never been a contentious issue in the court with the Agency.

That AON had wanted a waiver on en-route navigation charges which was taken to the Court and the Appellant Court ruled in favour of NAMA in 2002.

That the issue in the Court has nothing to do with the huge debt Arik is owing NAMA on services provided on domestic and international routes. That when AON went to Court in 2002,Arik was never incorporated and can not be a party to the issue in Court as claimed to escape settling its debt which stood at N884,719,271.65 and $1.6million on domestic and international routes respectively as at June 2010. That what transpired today, showed that Arik Air was alone ranger in this new payment regime as other airlines made their flights without hitches.

That the Act No 48 that established NAMA empowers it to charge for its services ditto ICAO regulation . NAMA as an agency of government does not receive subvention for payment of salaries and allowances including continued maintenance of facilities to ensure safe air navigation. Our only source for meeting these mandatory obligations is from our internally generated revenue. It was after this statement was issued that NigerianAviationNews learnt that Arik Air had come forward to pay N50million at about 8.00 pm and 9.00pm last night, clearance was reportedly given to Air Traffic Controllers to give Arik Air flights navigational services. And as at this morning (Thursday) all flights of Arik commenced their normal schedule. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria.

REACTIONS……………

1. From: NIGERIAN AIR TRAFFIC CONROLLERS ASSOCIATION[ Haske Jibrin(President), Martin Akujuobi(General Secretary) ]: The attention of the Nigerian Air Traffic Contollers’ Association has been drawn to the current debate, innuendos and misguided arguments regarding the denial of services to defaulting airlines by the relevant government Agencies over payment of fees and charges. The Association wishes to state as follows:

*That we identify with the resolve of the Government Agencies to deny services to ANY Airline that fails to pay its business charges to the concerned parastatals, especially I the interest of the Aviation Safety systems.

*That the Association supports any step taken by Government to ensure adequate funding of the various Aviation Parastatals to enable them finance their critical safety services to the industry such as Staff Training and Re-Training, Equipment re-newals and up-grades and other financial obligations to the Public Air Transport system.

*That the public should be properly guided by the fact that the denial of services to defaulting Airlines is in line with normal and civilized business practice and any thing to the contrary is both unethical and a reward to unpatriotic corporate citizenship.

*Meanwhile, it is mischievous to insinuate that Air Traffic Controllers are on strike. The truth is that the Association and its members will continue to deny Air Traffic Services to any airline found to be in default, while arrangement has been concluded to set up a committee of the Association to ensure the sustenance of this important revenue drive.

2. FROM: CIVIL SOCIETY REPRESENTATIVE[ Comrade Abdul-Razaq Saidu, Civil Society Rep-MTSS Aviation ](MTSS 2011-2013): The existence of the Federal Government’s MTSS and full representative of the Civil Society in the same MTSS gave the Civil Society representative some serious concern over the indebtedness of the airlines to the Federal Government’s parastatals and agencies in the Aviation sector with particular reference to NAMA.

It is a fact to confirm that NAMA has installed basic infrastructure and equipment thereby enabling the pilots and air traffic controllers to function effectively in terms of safety in the air. The airlines indebtedness to the parastatals has become an open hearing issue by the Senate Committee on Aviation, Ministerial Committee for which both had looked into the face-off between the airlines and parastatals particularly NAMA.

Directives were given to address this face-off, but some airlines have refused to comply with these directives, considering the fact that it is an ICAO set standard on payment for services provided. It has therefore become mandatory for the airlines to pay for the services being provided by these parastatals.

Lateef Lawal (NigerianAviationNews)

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*Tags: Nigerians, Arik, Airlines, FAA, Abuja, Lagos, Africa, Masterweb