By Chinelo Obogo
Airline Operators of Nigeria ( AON) has described as false, allegations that its members defrauded the Federal Government due to the debt some of them owe aviation agencies.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had on Tuesday, threatened to ground debtor local airlines whose current obligations stand at N19 billion and $7.6 million, arising from unremitted ticket charges paid by passengers.
The regulator then mandated the domestic operators to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on how they will pay their debts in the next 30 days, from August 30, 2022, failing which will result in the immediate withdrawal of their operating licenses.
Responding to the reports, the AON in a statement signed by its Vice President, Allen Onyema, stated that airlines in Nigeria are operating under harsh conditions and that every airline in the world is indebted and such debts are settled as their operations go on, insisting that it is no reason to criminalise the airlines.
He however called on its members with bad debts to engage the agencies and put forward repayment plans.
“Our attention has been drawn to news making the rounds that the DG NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu, “accused airlines of defrauding 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 N19billion Naira while converting same to ‘personal use.’”