The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) on Wednesday warned airlines operating in the country to desist from "habitual non-remittance" of funds meant for various airport authorities.
Threatening possible grounding should the defaulting airlines fail to pay up their debts, the agency disclosed that the accrued sum which is running into hundreds of millions of Naira is an agreement between the airspace management and the airlines.
"A lot of airlines owe us and the money so accrued is the percentage shares of cost of flights as laid down by the rules and regulations establishing NAMA," said Abubakar Baraje, the chairman of the governing board of the agency, at its headquarters in Lagos.
Mr. Baraje argued that the airlines have no reason to hold unto funds meant for the agency, stressing that the carriers collect their fares together with the charges of respective airport authorities and agencies from passengers.
"Since passengers pay through the airlines, there is an agreement between the agency and the airline operators that when you collect, the percentage due to NAMA should be remitted immediately, but because of the failure of the remittance, the amount started accruing until you can't even stand it," he said.
Debt recovery outfit
Asked if the agency is going to ground the aircraft belonging to the offending airlines, Mr. Baraje disclosed that the airspace management is cognisant of how the prevailing financial downturn is affecting the country's national carriers, adding that the agency is puting up a unit that will work out ways to recover the debts.
"We want to be self sufficient, so we are putting up an external debt recovery outfit to help us get our money, and suggest to us ways of avoiding such accruals," he said. "We may not ground our local airline operators now by way of punishment considering their plights, but it is in the flagrant disobedience to stipulated laws that such airlines will be grounded."
No sympathy for international debtors Baraje, however, declared that the agency will not spare indebted international carriers making use of Nigeria's airspace.
The NAMA boss argued that the rule internationally is that airlines operating in any foreign airspace are not granted the privilege of indebtedness, stressing that Nigerian carriers found defaulting are grounded when they get to international airports.
"We know how Nigerian airlines across other airspaces are treated; they are forced to land and grounded, if they can do that to us and the rules and regulations internationally says they are allowed to do that, why can't we also do that here?" he asked. "It is time we act so as not to be taken for granted."
Late last month, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, managers of the MMA2, disclosed that airlines operating from the terminal are found wanting in the remittance of service charges meant for the terminal managers.
In April, Maevis Limited, the concessionaire in charge of the collection of aeronautical charges from various airlines on behalf of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) allegedly accused our national carriers of running their operations by using funds meant for the federal airports authority.
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