The federal government has disclosed plans to grant airlines discount on debt owed to aviation agencies to cushion the escalating price of aviation fuel on airlines.
The decision followed plans by the airlines to embark on strike due to the astronomical increase in Jet A1.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Festus Keyamo announced the decision on Wednesday in Abuja,after a closed door meeting with airline operators, Minster of state Petroleum Resources represented by the permanent Secretary Patience Oyekunle, Director General of NCAA, Managing Director of FAAN and other industry stakeholders.
He said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during an earlier meeting had directed him to submit a memo to him indicating the discount to be given to the airlines on debt owed to Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
Keyamo said “I had the privilege of meeting with Mr. President to brief him on the outcome of the meeting. During the discussion, he directed that a formal written request be submitted to him first thing tomorrow morning.
“He assured that the initial request he would consider and approve is a generous discount on the debts owed by airlines to aviation agencies, including NAMA, FAAN, NCAA, among others.
“Mr. President specifically instructed that the request should not be delayed for a council memo but forwarded to him as early as possible, with details such as the proposed percentage of the discount. He will make a final decision on this.”
He stated that the President is deeply concerned about the current challenges facing the aviation sector and asked that his sincere appreciation be conveyed to airline operators, acknowledging the difficult conditions under which they operate and for not to raise airfares despite the harsh condition.
The minister also disclosed plans by the President to set up a committee to address the long standing issues about levies, taxes and fees on domestic tickets once and for al, saying the committee will be expected to come up with a report as soon as possible.
On the issue of hike in Jet A1, the Permanent Secretary Petroleum Resources said another meeting will be conveyed with the oil markets tomorrow (Thursday) to tackle the issues raised by the airline operator .
The Chairman of AirPeace Allen Onyema while speaking on behalf of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) commended the President for the discount granted by the President on the debt owed by the airline and called for a complete waiver of the debt pending the period the Strait of Hormoz.
Speaking on their plan to shut down operations, Onyema said ” we threatened to shut down, not because we wanted to shut down, but because we had no money anymore, any longer to continue to borrow money from the banks just to pay for fuel and neglecting other things that are supposed to be done in the visual industry.
He said “We are we here because of the astronomical rise of a one fuel in Nigeria, which we consider not to be proportionate with the cost of or the rise in the cost of crude oil all over the world. The world, the standard is, if crude oil rises by 10% the byproduct of crude oil should rise by proportionate raise in the pricing. But in Nigeria, after the blockade of the Strait Hormoz Nigeria increased by about 300% and these airlines are bleeding.”
“And you know very well that your regime preaches utmost safety, and we don’t want to shorten safety. So we decided that instead of not having money to do other things like maintenance, but only to be buying fuel that we needed to shut down, we appreciate this government. So when the honorable minister came to us to say, please don’t do this, we didn’t. It didn’t take us a second to obey that plea, because this government has really helped the airlines and the aviation industry more than any since 1960”
“The truth is that the marketers must be brought to book to explain how they got about the 300% increase when even Dangote is even surprised, because what he is selling to us is the he still remains the cheapest, and some of them lifted from there. So why the astronomical rise? Thankfully, we are going to meet with them tomorrow,” he said.
He also appealed to the President to increase funding to the Bank of Industry (BOI) so that they can get credit facilities at cheaper interest rate .
