The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) have been at each other’s throats over whether airlines should continue to pay charges, following the corruption that prevail at the aviation industry.
Yakubu Dati, spokesperson for FAAN in a release made available to journalists recently has accused Alhaji Mohammed Tukur, the supposed spokesperson of the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON), to have authored a press release indicating all airlines under the aegis of the association would stop paying their charges to all aviation agencies, with effect from November 1, 2013 pending the review of such charges.
Dati claimed that the said release was only a figment of the imagination of Alhaji Tukur, who currently according to him does not work for any airline and therefore cannot rightly speak for Nigerian airlines, all the airlines in the country have continued to remit their charges accurately to the various aviation agencies, to date.
“To the best of our knowledge, all operational airlines in the country continue to maintain a cordial business relationship with all the aviation agencies providing them service because they know that the present administration has shown undeniable commitment to the development of the country’s aviation industry,”
However, Alhaji Muhammed Tukur, in an interview with aviation journalists on Tuesday affirmed that the spokesperson of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati, was only trying unsuccessfully to discredit a statement that he issued on November 3, on behalf of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON which called on the Federal Government to sanitise the aviation sector in the country, rid it of corruption and corrupt people and resolve the pressing issue of multiple charges and taxation currently killing airlines in the country.
According to Tukur, AON statement also informed the public that airlines in the country have stopped paying monthly charges effective from November 1, 2013.
These charges include navigation, landing and parking charges as well as 5 percent ticket sales, electrical bills and rent among other charges.
Nothing, to the best of our knowledge, has changed since we issued that statement. Airlines are no more paying and would not pay until President Goodluck Jonathan sanitised the sector.
“I would like to state unequivocally that the statement that I made did not emanate from Mohammed Tukur as being claimed by Dati, rather it came from the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON. It was made with the consent and the mandate of the Airline Operators of Nigeria, AON,” Alhaji Tukur maintained.